Joel “Big Bird” Garner To Be Honored In New York

Atlantis Cricket Club – New York is set to bestow honorary membership on one of the legendary and most feared bowlers ever to don the colors of the West Indies cricket team. Joel “Big Bird” Garner, the Barbados and West Indies fast bowler will be recognized by the New York based cricket club for his outstanding accomplishments in the field of cricket and his sterling contribution to the West Indies team of the 70’s and 80’s.

Now President of the Barbados Cricket Association, the 6’ 8” Garner also sits on the West Indies Cricket Board and is much of a sport hero in Barbados, as he is in New York.

Garner will join a list of former Test greats who are now honorary members of Atlantis Cricket Club. Clive Lloyd, Andy Roberts, Alvin Kallicharran, Lance Gibbs, Lawrence Rowe, Curtly Ambrose, Roger Harper, Basil Butcher and Joe Solomon have all been honored in like manner at the club’s annual black-tie event, over the past nine years.

Atlantis Cricket Club is celebrating its 41st year participating in competitive cricket in the New York metropolitan area. This year’s awards dinner is scheduled for Saturday, November 10, 2007 at the Adria Hotel and Ballroom in Bayside, Queens, NY. The event is open to the general public and tickets can be had by contacting John Aaron at (917) 861-9110.

Joel Garner
A brief Bio by Orin Davidson

Joel Garner was not handed the appellation "Big Bird" simply because he stood six feet eight inches tall. More than anything else he used his massive height to such devastating effect, the Barbadian went on to etch his name in the annals of world cricket as one of world's best fast bowlers of his era.

As part of the famous West Indies four-prong pace attack, Garner helped make West Indies the most dominant team in the world for 15 years in both Test and limited overs competition in the late 1970s and 80s.

In the 1979 World Cup final, Garner destroyed the England batting lineup for a world record spell of five wickets for four runs. He ended the match with the exemplary figures of 5-38 to lead West Indies to their second successive World Cup title.

At the time, Garner in partnership with Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Colin Croft drove fear into every team that lined up against them. And together with a powerful batting line, carried by Vivian Richards, Clive Lloyd, Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge and Alvin Kallicharran among others, West Indies played unbeaten in Tests from 1980 to 1995.

Garner's trade mark weapon was a toe crunching yorker which complimented his unerring accuracy and control. Despite those qualities, he was still the most underrated member of the four-prong pace attack.

One of the most difficult bowlers to score off, Garner’s accuracy and bounce generated from his huge frame made facing him a nightmare.

Garner's success influenced the emergence of tall West Indian players taking up fast bowling, most notably Curtly Ambrose who at 6ft 7in, became a close re-incarnation of the former.

In Barbados where he was born and bred, Garner followed in the footsteps of two compatriots who were renowned as the greatest pace bowling duo produced by West Indies in Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith.

In 1997 Garner broke onto the international scene unexpectedly, after injuries to Michael Holding and Wayne Daniel paved the way for the introduction of himself and Croft.

The pair never looked back and went on to set a new standard for fast bowling as part of the West Indies’ four-prong attack.

Apart from his exploits with the West Indies, Garner made a huge name for himself in the English County championships. He and Viv Richards were primarily responsible for transforming Somerset into one of the top counties during the 1980s.

"Big Bird" ended his Test career after 58 Tests with 259 scalps at a miserly 20.97 average. He played 98 ODIs, bagged 146 wickets with an even more frugal average of 18.84

These days Garner is one of the many former Test stars upset with the decline of West Indies cricket which is now ranked last among the established world teams in both forms of the game.

He threw himself into administration and worked his way up to the prestigious position of president of the Barbados Cricket Association, a position to which he was recently elected. As a result Joel Garner is now a director on the West Indies Cricket Board whose mandate comprises the unenviable task of restoring West Indies cricket standard back to the levels of its halcyon days.

Joel "Big Bird" Garner is also one of the Legends on the Stanford Board that stage the now highly popular million-dollar Stanford Twenty20 cricket tournament in Antigua.

Although an extremely busy individual these days, Garner still recognizes the importance of acknowledging the respect and admiration with which he is still held. His acceptance of Honorary Lifetime Membership bestowed upon him by Atlantis Cricket Club – New York is indicative of his love of the game and the people who still admire him dearly.