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Conrad Hunte

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Conrad Hunte
Hunte in 1963
Personal information
Full name
Sir Conrad Cleophas Hunte
Born(1932-05-09)9 May 1932
Greenland Plantation, Shorey's Village,St Andrew,Barbados
Died3 December 1999(1999-12-03)(aged 67)
Sydney,New South Wales, Australia
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm medium
RoleOpening batsman
International information
National side
Test debut (cap98)17 January 1958 vPakistan
Last Test18 January 1967 vIndia
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1950/51–1966/67Barbados
Career statistics
Competition Test FC LA
Matches 44 132 3
Runs scored 3,245 8,916 12
Batting average 45.06 43.92 4
100s/50s 8/13 16/51 0/0
Top score 260 263 11
Ballsbowled 270 1,353 115
Wickets 2 17 6
Bowling average 55.00 37.88 10.16
5 wickets in innings 0 0 0
10 wickets in match 0 0 0
Best bowling 1/17 3/5 4/38
Catches/stumpings 16/– 68/1 3/–
Source:CricketArchive,31 July 2011

Sir Conrad Cleophas Hunte,KA[1](9 May 1932 – 3 December 1999) was aBarbadiancricketer.Hunte played 44Test matchesas anopening batsmanfor theWest Indies.[2]

Early life and career

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Hunte was born in ruralSt Andrew Parishin the north of Barbados, the son of a sugar plantation worker.[3]Hunte's family was poor. One of nine children, Hunte grew up in a one-room house. By the time he was six-years-old, he was playing cricket with the village boys, using an improvised bat made from palm fronds.[3]Hunte's father was determined that Hunte would receive a good education and so Hunte was required to walk—barefoot—each day the three miles toBelleplaineBoys School.[4][5]Hunte showed the first glimpses of his talent, making the schoolFirst XIaged 10 where he played with and against boys much bigger and older than himself.

Hunte, aged 12, won a scholarship to attendAlleyne Secondary School.His talent was soon noted by the school gamesmaster, who placed him straight into the school First XI, where he played against boys aged up to 18. As an incentive the gamesmaster offered Hunte ashillingevery time he made 25 runs. Hunte captained the school team in his last three years.[4]In his final year at school Hunte was asked to play for a new club, the Belleplaine Sports and Social Club.[4]Belleplaine played in the Northern section of theBarbados Cricket League(BCL), which provided organised cricket for poor and rural Barbadians. In 1950 Hunte made the BCL representative team for its annual match against the elite (and socially exclusive)Barbados Cricket Associationteam. Dropped early in his innings by Test playerDenis Atkinson,Hunte went on to make 137—the first BCL player to make acenturyin this annual fixture.[3][4]

Soon after this match Hunte was selected to make hisfirst-class cricketdebut forBarbadosagainstTrinidad and TobagoatKensington Ovalin Bridgetown. Hunte scored 63 runs in the first innings and followed this with 15 in the second.[6]Hunte was also offered a place with the eliteEmpire Cricket Clubin Division 1 of the Barbados Cricket Association, the home club of his sporting idolEverton Weekes.[4]There was little first-class cricket in the West Indies at the time and Hunte's cricket career was slow to progress.[3]He worked for a time as a school teacher at St. Simon's Mixed School, the Barbados civil service as an Accounts Clerk and later in life insurance.[4]Hunte failed to take his opportunity against thevisiting Australiansin 1954–55, scoring aduckand three.[7]It was the following season when Hunte finally showed his ability on a larger stage, scoring 151 and 95 in two matches against a touring team from England managed byE. W. Swanton.[3]

In 1956 Hunte moved to England, to study Economics and also looking for a professional contract in English league cricket.[4]He worked at a bus plant and cotton mill in Lancashire before being picked up by Leyland Motors Cricket Club in the Northern League. The next year Hunte was contracted byEnfield Cricket Clubin theLancashire League.[3][4]The relationship between Hunte and Enfield was a happy one; unlike most professionals who tended to wander, Hunte stayed at the club for six seasons.[4]In 1959, Hunte set a club record for the most runs scored in a season.[8]

When Hunte moved to England, he had advised theselectorsof the West Indies team that he was available totour England in 1957should he be chosen. While waiting for an invitation for the tour, Hunte considered and rejected attempting to become eligible for selection forKent County Cricket Clubin the EnglishCounty Championship.[4]When no invitation was forthcoming Hunte signed to play with Enfield. Later Hunte was told that theWest Indies Cricket Board(WICB) had sent him a letter, which failed to reach him in Lancashire. After he signed with Enfield received a note from a WICB board member, urging him to state if he wished to be considered for selection. Hunte replied that he was, provided Enfield would agree to release him from his contract. When the squad for the tour was released, Hunte's name was missing.[4]The West Indies soon regretted overlooking Hunte. The two batsman selected ahead of him—Nyron AsgaraliandAndy Ganteaume—did not meet with much success in the Test matches.[4]

Hunte was only the second West Indianto carry his batin a Test innings.[9]

West Indies career

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Hunte did make his Test debut the following winter againstPakistanat his home ground ofKensington Oval.He hit the first two balls that he faced, fromFazal Mahmood,forfoursand made 142 runs in his first innings. In the third Test of the same series he made 260, including a partnership of 446 withGarfield Soberswhich was then the second-highest partnership in history and is stillthe sixth highest[10]– Sobers went on to make a then world-record 365not outas the West Indies reached 790 for 3declared.In the fourth Test of the series, Hunte made anothercentury.He finished his debut series with 622 runs at anaverageof 77.75, and the West Indies won the series 3–1.

After this successful start, Hunte was the West Indies' regular opening batsman for the next nine years, and vice captain of the team for eight of them. This was a successful period for the West Indies, in which they won seven of the ten series in which he played.

Hunte played a major role in West Indies' series win in England in 1963. He curbed his aggressive instincts as a batsman to build a solid platform for the innings. This was rewarded with two crucial centuries. He scored 182 in the first innings of the summer as West Indies won by 10wickets.Then in the final Test of the summer, the West Indies needed to avoid losing to win the series. They were set 253 to win in the fourth innings, at that time regarded as a difficult target, with over two days to play. But Hunte scored 108 not out as the West Indies won by eight wickets, and won the series 3–1. Hunte finished the series with a batting average of 58.87, and was chosen as one of theWisden Cricketers of the Yearin 1964.

Conrad Hunte's career performance graph.

After the tour to England, the captain of the West Indies,Frank Worrell,retired. Hunte expected to be appointed captain in his place, and when Garfield Sobers was chosen instead, he was bitterly disappointed, and for six weeks considered resigning himself. But he chose to continue playing, and in the next series, againstAustraliain 1965, he scored 550 runs, although without a century: he scored six fifties in ten innings, with a highest score of 89 and an average of 61.11. This was the record for the highest series aggregate without a century untilMike Athertonscored 553 in a six-Test series against Australia in 1993.

In total, Hunte played in 44Testsbetween 1958 and 1967. Despite having 13 different opening partners in his Test career, he accumulated 3245 runs at an average of 45.06. He scored eight centuries, including at least one against every country he played against.

Life after cricket

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Hunte was a committed Christian. The defining experience of his life was when in 1961, on the West Indies' tour of Australia, he saw the filmThe Crowning Experience,about the life of the black American educatorMary McLeod Bethune.This film was promoted byMoral Re-Armament(MRA), a multi-faith organisation promoting absolute moral and ethical standards of behaviour, to which Hunte committed the remainder of his life.

Hunte made no secret of his beliefs. Some reports suggest that the other members of the West Indies team became tired of his constantly expressing them in the dressing room, and that this contributed to his not being awarded the captaincy in 1963.

Hunte retired from cricket in 1967, although he could possibly have continued for some more years, to work full-time for MRA, promoting harmonious race relations. He wrote his autobiography, entitledPlaying to Win,in 1971. After several years inBritain,he moved toAtlanta,Georgia, to help with the racial situation there. It was there that he met his wife Patricia, a local newscaster, with whom he had three daughters.

In 1991, asapartheidwas coming to an end in South Africa, Hunte rang the director of the newUnited Cricket Board of South Africa,Ali Bacher,and offered to help develop cricket in theblack townshipsand promote reconciliation between the races. He worked as National Development Coach, funded by theMCC,for seven years. Hunte coached theSouth Africa women's national cricket teamat the1997 Women's Cricket World Cupin India, its first appearance in the tournament.[11]

In 1998 Hunte was conferred the highest honour in Barbados; he was made aKnight of St. Andrew(KA) of theOrder of Barbados.In 1999, with encouragement from the government of Barbados, he returned to the island of his birth. He was elected to the presidency of theBarbados Cricket Association,with plans to revive cricket in the country, but he died two months later, while in Australia to speak at a conference of the MRA.

Publications

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  • Playing to Win(1971)

Notes

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  1. ^Awards in the Order of BarbadosArchived6 July 2011 at theWayback Machine
  2. ^"An island of legends: Desmond Haynes picks his greatest Barbados Test XI".ESPNcricinfo.Retrieved21 January2019.
  3. ^abcdef"Obituary – Conrad Hunte".Wisden Cricketers' Almanack – online archive.John Wisden & Co. 2000.Retrieved31 July2011.
  4. ^abcdefghijkl"Cricketer of the Year 1964 – Conrad Hunte".Wisden Cricketers' Almanack – online archive.John Wisden & Co. 1964.Retrieved31 July2011.
  5. ^Dodds, Dickie; Coulter, Jim (1 April 2000)."A Cricketer for the Oppressed".For A Change.Retrieved31 July2011.
  6. ^"Barbados v Trinidad".First-Class matches in West Indies 1950/51.CricketArchive.Retrieved31 July2011.
  7. ^"Barbados v Australians".Australia in West Indies 1954/55.CricketArchive.Retrieved31 July2011.
  8. ^Stockley, Nigel (8 September 2003)."Enfield lose Van Jaarsveld to Northants".CricketArchive.Retrieved31 July2011.
  9. ^"Test Batting Records – Carrying bat through a completed innings".ESPNcricinfo.Retrieved3 November2016.
  10. ^Test records – Highest partnerships for any wicket,Cricinfo, Retrieved on 13 March 2009
  11. ^Alfred, Luke (4 December 1999)."In memory of cricket hero Conrad Hunte".Cape Argus.Retrieved12 September2023.

References

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  • Short, Peter (1986). Swanton, E. W. (ed.).Barclays world of cricket(Rev. ed.). London: Willow.ISBN0-00-218193-2.
  • Goodwin, Clayton (1980).Caribbean Cricketers: From the pioneers to Packer.London: George G. Harrap & Co.ISBN024553458X.
  • Hall, Wesley (1965).Pace Like Fire.London: Pelham.
  • Martin-Jenkins, Christopher (1980).The Complete Who's Who of Test Cricketers.Adelaide: Rigby.ISBN0-7270-1262-2.
  • Sobers, Garfield; Harris, Bob (2002).Garry Sobers.London: Headline.ISBN0-7553-1006-3.
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