da heads bet： Maynard typified an era when a tour of the West Indies was the ultimateexamination of body and soul

da 888casino： Andrew Miller25-Mar-2007To an English cricket fan of the early 1990s, John “The Dentist”Maynard was one of the most evocative characters imaginable. One mighteven go so far as to suggest he is the most famous West Indian fastbowler never to have played a Test. Those who were not hooked on thecoverage of England’s tour of the Caribbean in 1993-94 will probablyhave no idea who he is. Others, like myself, could give chapter andverse on his marmalisation of England’s middle-order during theirbuild-up to that winter’s Test series.Maynard, to this distant long-wave listener of Test Match Special,typified an era when a tour of the West Indies was the ultimateexamination of body and soul. The arrival of a Test team in theCaribbean, particularly if it had come from England, was a call toarms for every aspiring cricketer in the region. Long before DuncanFletcher turned tour games into a 12-man-a-side glorified net session,Maynard and his cronies were cranking up the pace and injecting thevenom, eager to advance their claims to Test selection, but equallydetermined to crush the tourists’ morale before they embarked on themain event.The Dentist’s first-class career was brief. He played 13 times for theLeeward Islands between 1991-92 and 1998-99, taking 35 wickets with abest of 5 for 24. But in that time he was undoubtedly explosive. “Inthe early 1990s, people were ranking my pace with Bish [Ian Bishop],”he told Cricinfo at Warner Park, where – as a proud Nevisian – he wasdividing between net-bowling duties for the visiting World Cup teams,and a stint as a guest summariser on none other than TMS. “I thinkeven now, at the age of 37, I’m in the mid-eighties.””I was always pretty close,” he says of his lack of Test recognition.”I used to be quite pacy, and I was touted to be the one who’d slip inmaybe when the Bishop era finished. But then they were foreverchanging – Ottis Gibson, Vasbert Drakes, Nixon McLean. Sometimes theluck of the draw doesn’t fall on your side. But I was always closeenough to the pot for them to be having a look.”Maynard was never closer than in the spring of 1994, when England cameto visit. He played in only two of the tour matches, and one of those- for St Kitts and Nevis on the pre-development Basseterre ground -wasn’t deemed to be first-class. Nevertheless, in the space of 52hounding overs, he picked off England’s finest for fun. The scores ofhis victims were: Atherton 6, Maynard 2, Hussain 0, Stewart 21, Thorpe11, Hick 0, Ramprakash 4. Seven England top-order batsmen, blastedaway for a sum total of 44 runs. Job done. Over to you Curtly.Like any self-respecting West Indian fast bowler, there’s one name inthat list of victims that stands out from the rest. “Graeme Hick, he’salways been one of my favourites, funnily enough,” glints the Dentist,recalling how, having undermined Hick’s Test preparations with a duck,he stalked the poor man all the way back to the county scene thefollowing summer, dismissing him third ball for 6 in a one-off Benson &Hedges Cupappearance for Norfolk against Worcestershire.

“I was by far and away the most destructive quick bowler in the

“I think at that time Hick was established as a first-class cricketer,but as a Test cricketer he never really got a chance to settle down ashe might have liked. He lacked a bit of confidence, and maybe that’sbecause he wasn’t from England. Maybe he thought he was supposed to doa little more than he’s supposed to. Maybe that stalled his career.”Surprising as it may seem, Maynard would sympathise if that was thecase. As an inhabitant of Nevis, an island of just 11,000 people,recognition has always seemed harder to come by than it might havebeen had he hailed from Barbados, Jamaica or Trinidad. “It’s alwaysbeen a problem with the island politics,” he says. “Take StuartWilliams [a fellow Nevisian who played 31 Tests between 1994 and2002], his name was always about for getting dropped, even though theguys competing with him didn’t get the same runs. Smaller islands tendto get the hard knocks sometimes.”But they also have, just once in a while, the opportunity to punchabove their weight in spectacular fashion. Only last year, Maynard andWilliams joined forces in what he now describes as his favourite formof the game – Twenty20 cricket – to help propel little Nevis all theway to the semi-finals of a tournament that featured teams from 19different islands. Along the way, they inflicted massively satisfyingdefeats on their nearest neighbours and bitterest rivals, St Kitts inthe first round and Antigua in the quarter-finals.”I was by far and away the most destructive quick bowler in thecompetition,” says the Dentist, “even at the age of 37. I took themost wickets as a quick and consistently generated the most pace.” Hisfinest hour was a haul of 4 for 9 against St Kitts that earned him aMan of the Match cheque for $25,000, and inter-island bragging rightsfor evermore. “We’re the smaller population in Nevis, but we focus alot more on cricket, In St Kitts they are all focussed on football.”That’s because Nevis has a cricket heritage that St Kitts, its swankynew stadium notwithstanding, would die for. The Nevisian, ElquemedoWillett, who played five Tests as a left-arm spinner between 1973 and1975, was the first cricketer from any of the smaller islands to playfor West Indies. Six have since followed his example: Derek Parry,Keith Arthurton, Stuart Williams, Runako Morton and Carl Tuckett. StKitts, by contrast, has yet to get off the mark. “The majority of ouryoung guys try to emulate Willett,” adds Maynard. “He was the steppingstone.”Nevis is way ahead of Kitts when it comes to producing international cricketers – Elquemedo Willet, Runako Morton(above), Keith Arthurton, Stuart Williams, Carl Tuckett and Derek Parry. Kitts is yet to produce one•Getty ImagesMaynard still has the look and build of a genuine fast bowler, and theself-belief to match. “About three years ago, I was playing locallyfor the islands competition, and I might have got a chance [for theTest side] then. Everything seemed to be right, I was feeling so goodwith my game, my fitness, everything. And I was getting wickets. Butthat’s the time that [Ian] Bradshaw got into the team. If I’d got alook in with the Leewards then, who knows, maybe I would have been inJamaica by now.”Why though, is he known as the Dentist? “It’s a funny old story,” hegrins. “I was playing for Nevis against Antigua many years ago, andthere was this bloke playing for Antigua called Zorah Barthley, whowas the West Indies youth team captain. Nevis had never beaten Antiguaoutright in Antigua, but that afternoon, we took the new ball and hewas playing really late. And I thought to myself, if he’s playing latenow I’ve got to rough him up early in the morning.”First thing in the morning he nicks one but the umps didn’t send himon his way, and that wound me up a bit. And so the next ball was fouryards quicker than anything I’ve ever bowled. He shaped to hook, andhis teeth went flying all over the place, and it was a funny oldsight. But he was the man who made the Dentist really. I couldn’t havedone it without him.”I never worry about hurting them at the time,” he adds. “Maybe I’llthink about it later at night, but in the heat of the moment, as abowler if you can’t get them out, you’ve gotta hurt them ’til they getout. I think I’ve broken pretty much every part of the body so far,from the teeth to the jaw to the nose to the ribs to the arms and tothe toes.” No wonder his legend precedes him.