Pratham Chhabria | 1:27pm BST 26 May 2025
Part 7
Pratham: You went to Australia after that England series of 68-69. This was Wes and Charlie’s
last tour.
Pratham: And you took in the First Test, which was in Brisbane, an 8 wicket haul in the match to
set up a win.
Pratham: Do you remember that Brisbane performance?
Lance Gibbs: No.
Pratham: Okay.
Pratham: Now that was the only win that West Indies would have in that tour. They’d end up
losing that series to Australia in ‘68-’69 by a decent margin: 3-1.
Lance Gibbs: I must have been drinking (both chuckle)!
Pratham: There are reports about how that was not a very happy tour in ‘68-’69. Sir Garry talked
about how 30 catches were put down.
Lance Gibbs: What?
Pratham: In 4 Tests, yeah.
Pratham: It was considered to be a pretty rough tour. I’m guessing from your recollections now –
judging from your recollections, you don’t have much you remember from that series?
Lance Gibbs: (Shakes his head)
Pratham: No?
Pratham: Well, there was a period of your career that we’d enter after this Australian tour where
you had a bit of a slump in your form.
Pratham: This is from ‘69 to ’71.
Pratham: You toured New Zealand, England, and then India at home.
Pratham: Your figures for most of your career were really good – but there was that period, that
three year period, where they…
Lance Gibbs: Were not very good.
Pratham: Not very good – at all, really
(Note: Lance Gibbs’s bowling record from his international
debut till the end of the 1968 Australian tour in 43 matches was 191 wickets at an average of
25.19. Between the New Zealand tour from February 1969 to the West Indies home series loss
to India in 1971 where he played only 1 game at Guyana and was dropped from the rest, Lance
Gibbs took in 8 matches 18 wickets at an average of 56.11).
Pratham: I remember when we last discussed, you had an injury that I saw photos off – the
bulging of your index finger – the index finger that you’d use to spin (the ball).
Pratham: I remember one image dating back to about ’69.
Pratham: Do you feel that the lack of results at that time period was maybe down to that injury
you had?
Lance Gibbs: Yeah, the bulge.
Pratham: And that you would say was mainly just a part of having to bowl so many overs?
Lance Gibbs: Could be.
Pratham: Obviously, there’s so many factors involved, but it seems like if you’re injured…
Lance Gibbs: Yeah.
Pratham: You’re probably not going to be able to give your best.
Pratham: Well, coming back to the era of the slump in your form, you were left out from all but 1
match against India at home in 1970-71.
Pratham: Jack Noreiga was picked instead of you and he was an off-spinner. He did only play
that series and was fairly old at that point.
Pratham: India would actually go on to win their 1st series abroad in that tour. They would win
that series 1-0. You played a game – you didn’t take a wicket in that particular game.
Pratham: The reasons the selectors gave you for being dropped from the side – were you okay
with them? How did you take it? How did you look to bounce back in that situation?
Lance Gibbs: Once I decided to continue to play, I will continue to get into the side.
Pratham: So you felt that even though you had been dropped…
Lance Gibbs: I could make a comeback.
Pratham: And you did make a comeback – in ‘73, that is. Now, Australia won the series 2-0, but
you took 26 wickets in a home series against them.
Pratham: What did you feel was the most responsible for getting you back into form?
Lance Gibbs: Probably checking out the finger.
Pratham: I see, I see. Fair enough.
Pratham: Ian Chappell was the captain of that tour. And he said it was an interesting series in
that there were certain circumstances which they wouldn’t expect to win but they ended up
putting in a 2-0 defeat for the West Indies.
Pratham: And Doug Walters famously scored a 100 in that tour as well in a session.
Lance Gibbs: I remember him. Batted at #6
(Note: While Doug Walters did bat at #6 in the
batting order for most of the tour, he was promoted to batting at #4 in the 3rd Test where he
scored a 100 in a session after Ian Chappell moved himself down the batting order to #6 after
spraining his ankle).
Pratham: Chappell talks about a battle in that one innings of that tour where Doug Walters was
playing you on a turning surface and combatted you very nicely.
Pratham: What was it about Doug that allowed him to score so many runs against the West
Indies and you in particular?
Lance Gibbs: Doug Walters…he was not a coward. He would take chances. And he would
probably get away with it, like on that day.
Pratham: Did he play you a lot off the back foot?
Lance Gibbs: When a fella like that would play on the backfoot, you’ve got to make him come
forward!
Pratham: Right, right.
Pratham: Well, your final series in England was in ’73.
Pratham: But you’d been playing consistently in England for many years before that.
Pratham: I was looking at the time you spent bowling for Warwickshire.
Lance Gibbs: Warwickshire, yeah.
Pratham: You had signed up there to bowl in county (cricket). What was your experience like
bowling in county cricket?
Lance Gibbs: Very different, very different. It was like playing another game.
Pratham: How was Birmingham? You stayed there…
Lance Gibbs: Yeah, I lived there till I lived here.
Pratham: So how was it?
Lance Gibbs: Good, good – very good! They treated me well.
Pratham: Were there any adjustments you had to make going from Guyana to there?
Lance Gibbs: No, no. My children went to school there.
Pratham: Did they like it there – your children?
Lance Gibbs: Oh yeah, oh yeah. My daughter is a lawyer…
Pratham: When you had that Warwickshire stint, Wisden Almanack named you one of their Five
Cricketers of the Year.
Pratham: There’s an art that English spinners would traditionally have of drifting the ball away
from the right hander while coming around the wicket. So the ball would be here and then curve
back a little bit.
Pratham: And they said that you had started doing that in county cricket at that point in ’72.
Pratham: Do you recall what kind of sparked that change?
Lance Gibbs: In bowling or in batting, in order to get to the top, you got to bring in certain things
that, you know, you are not accustomed to doing.
Lance Gibbs: When I was doing that, I was seeing something that I would be successful with.
Pratham: I see, so you saw some other English spinner…
Lance Gibbs: Yeah, yeah.
Pratham: In that fashion around the wicket and that’s what kind of sparked it.
To be continued ……………
