jeffrey dujon

It was one of the most spectacular sights of cricket in the 1980s. A great West Indian fast bowler – any of several suspects – roared on by a partisan Caribbean crowd, a short ball rearing, the batsman fending and edging, and behind the stumps, a lithe athlete leaping and plunging to take another one-handed blinder. Jeff Dujon was the gymnastic hub of those all-conquering Windies sides, a man who never participated in a losing series and whose tally of victims has been exceeded only by Ian Healy and Rod Marsh. If his keeping was never adequately tested against spin bowling (just five of his 270 victims were stumped) then there was scant opportunity. No-one can have been more riveting to watch standing back. He could bat too, elegantly, sufficiently well to make five Test centuries. The largest of them, 139, came in the opening match against Australia at Perth in 1984-85, and helped rescue his side from 186 for 6. Mike Selvey