Colin Everton Hunte Croft (born 15 March 1953) is a former West Indian international

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er.

Cricket career

Croft was (along with Andy Roberts,

Michael Holding Michael Anthony Holding (born 16 February 1954) is a Jamaican former cricketer and commentator who played for the West Indies cricket team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest pace bowlers in cricket history, he was nicknamed "Whispering Dea ...

and

Joel Garner Joel Garner (born 16 December 1952) is a former West Indian cricketer, and a member of the highly regarded late 1970s and early 1980s West Indies cricket teams. Garner is the highest ranked One Day International bowler according to the ICC bes ...

) part of the potent West Indian quartet of fast bowlers from the late 70s and early 80s. With his height (), he bowled bouncers and was very aggressive. He was renowned for bowling wide of the crease over the wicket and angling the ball in to right-handers. His approach to the wicket was unconventional and footage of Croft bowling around the wicket show him on a run-up more typical of a ''left''-arm bowler. Croft's figures of 8/29 against

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

in 1977 are still the best Test innings figures by a fast bowler from the West Indies. Croft was involved in a number of controversial incidents during the ill-tempered test series with

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in 1979–80. During the Second Test at Christchurch's

Lancaster Park Lancaster Park, also known as Jade Stadium and AMI Stadium for sponsorship reasons, was a sports stadium in Waltham, a suburb of Christchurch in New Zealand. The stadium was closed permanently due to damage sustained in the February 2011 eart ...

in February 1980, the West Indies considered umpire

Fred Goodall Frederick Robert Goodall (9 January 1938 – 18 October 2021) was a New Zealand international cricket umpire who officiated in 24 Tests and 15 One-Day Internationals between 1965 and 1988. Goodall was the son of Fred and Betty Goodall from Gr ...

's officiating so poor that they refused to emerge from their dressing room after the tea break on Day 3 unless Goodall was immediately replaced. After 11 minutes, they were persuaded to resume. Croft collided with Goodall at the end of his bowling run-up during the fourth day's play after knocking a bail off the stumps with a previous delivery, unhappy at being no-balled frequently and having a caught-behind appeal turned down. West Indies captain

Clive Lloyd Sir Clive Hubert Lloyd (born 31 August 1944) is a Guyanese-British former cricketer who played for the West Indies cricket team. As a boy he went to Chatham High School in Georgetown. At the age of 14 he was captain of his school cricket team ...

later regretted not taking a firmer line with his players.

County career

Lance Gibbs Lancelot Richard Gibbs (born 29 September 1934) is a former West Indies cricketer, one of the most successful spin bowlers in Test cricket history. He took 309 Test wickets, only the second player (after Fred Trueman) to pass 300, the first spi ...

arranged for Croft to go to

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

on a coaching scholarship in 1972 where he played two games in the second eleven. With Warwickshire already having a quartet of West Indies Test players, no opportunity presented itself at the Midlands county, but Croft did play for

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

in 1977, 1978 and 1982 taking 136 wickets at 26.5 in first class matches.

Rebel tour

In 1982 Croft accepted a place on the

rebel tour The South African rebel tours were a series of seven cricket tours staged between 1982 and 1990. They were known as the rebel tours because the international cricketing bodies Sporting boycott of South Africa, banned South Africa from competitiv ...

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

-divided

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, in violation of an international ban on sports tours of the country. The rebel players were granted "

honorary whites Honorary whites is a term that was used by the apartheid regime of South Africa to grant some of rights and privileges of White South Africans, whites to those who would otherwise have been treated as Coloureds, non-whites under the Population Re ...

" status by the South African government to allow them access to all-white cricket playing areas. However, there was controversy when Croft was ejected from a whites only seating compartment on a train out of Johannesburg. All the players who took part in the tour were banned for life from international cricket, thus marking the end of Croft's cricket playing career. Croft moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

to avoid recriminations at home.Colin Croft states so in the documentary ''Fire in Babylon''. The ban was effectively lifted in 1989, by both the WICB and the UN.

Teaching career

Croft taught maths at

Lambrook Lambrook is an independent preparatory school for 615 boys and girls, aged 3–13, set in of Berkshire countryside. History The school was founded in 1860 by Robert Burnside, in a large country house built in 1853 by William Budd. Burnside ini ...

school in Winkfield Row,

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

, UK, in 2007–2008 for one and a half terms. He never coached cricket at the school.

Media career

Since 1994, Croft has been doing cricket coverage part-time, as a commentator/analyst, and was one of the first writers for

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

, contributing over 500 articles so far to that entity. He has continued his sports journalism career everywhere that cricket is played, covering West Indies tours since 1994. Croft's first overseas sports journalism sojourn was to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

in 1995. During the 2007 ICC

Cricket World Cup The Cricket World Cup (officially known as ICC Men's Cricket World Cup) is the international championship of One Day International (ODI) cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), e ...

Croft provided analysis for the BBC's ''

Test Match Special ''Test Match Special'' (also known as ''TMS'') is a British sports radio programme, originally, as its name implies, dealing exclusively with Test cricket matches, but currently covering any professional cricket. It broadcasts on BBC Radio 4 LW ( ...

'' radio coverage on all the Guyana-based matches. He continued his analyst's role during the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

tour of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

the same year. In his private life, having been an Air Traffic Controller from 1973 to 1981, while also playing cricket for the West Indies cricket team, he has also obtained a Commercial Airline Pilot's licence in the US, with endorsements for the UK, and worked as a Commercial Pilot in the Caribbean. He also regularly appears as a studio guest on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

when

are playing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Croft, Colin 1953 births Living people People from East Berbice-Corentyne West Indies One Day International cricketers West Indies Test cricketers World Series Cricket players Guyanese cricketers Demerara cricketers Lancashire cricketers Guyana cricketers Afro-Guyanese people Cricketers at the 1979 Cricket World Cup Commercial aviators