Joe Solomon and the Spirit of Mourant/Clem Seecharan
Port Mourant, a sugar plantation on the Corenyne Coast of Guyana, is a remarkable place as it has spawned 4 famous West Indian cricketers – Basil Butcher, Rohan Kanhai and Joe Solomon – and later Alvin Kallicharan, a political leader Cheggi Jagan and the author Professor Clem Seecharan, emeritus Professor of History at London Metropolitan University.
Here Professor Seecharan focuses on Joe Solomon.
He had neither the brilliant versatility of Garry Sobers – nor the bravura of Rohan Kanhai, the elegance of Frank Worrell, nor the power of Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott – but he was an indispensable number 6, protecting the tail end and usually contributing an invaluable 30/40.
He was also a brilliant fielder, best remembered for his two “run outs” in the famous tied Test match in Brisbane in 1960 – the second hitting the stumps side-on with the final ball of the match.
As a distinguished historian, Seecharan places his career in the context of post-War Caribbean cricket with its nascent nationalism, anti-colonialism and feeling that the captain should be a black Caribbean.
The 1950s captains Jeff Stollmeyer, John Goddard, Dennis Atkinson and Gerry Alexander had all been white.
Frank Worrell refused the captaincy of the 1958 tour of the sub-continent as he was then at Manchester University.
However, he proved an inspirational captain on the 1960 tour of Australia, so much so that after the final Test at Melbourne between 300,000 and 500,000 Australians lined the streets to say farewell to the popular tourists and acknowledge their sportsmanship.
Professor Seecharan also inaugurated the Worrell Lecture at his university and Jim Swanton – the high priest of cricket writing – delivered the eulogy to Worrell at Westminster Abbey.
Joey Solomon played in 14 of Worrell’s Tests as captain – the two most memorable being the aforementioned tied Test in Australia and the 1963 Test at Lords against England. Again, he figured in a run out as two ‘oldies’ – he and Derek Shackleton – ran in a brace to the stumps as Solomon, always unflappable, did not risk the throw.
