The Island of Barbados has produced many intimidating fast bowlers. The tall and muscular Charlie Griffith is one of them. Curiously, Griffith in his younger days was a wicket-keeper and later on tried off-spin before eventually switching over to bowling quick.

It was in a tour game against MCC in Barbados in 1959-60 that Griffith gave a glimpse of his ability to bowl at a blistering speed. He took the prized scalps of Ted Dexter, Colin Cowdrey and Peter May to help Barbados register a convincing win. He was soon drafted in the West Indie side for the series against England. Unfortunately, he couldn't make his presence felt in his first Test match played at Port of Spain, Trinidad.

However, it was during the next season when Griffith hit the headlines by hitting India's captain, Nari Contractor, just above his left ear in a tour game. Contractor remained unconscious for nearly six days. In fact, his batting partner Rusi Surti had signalled to Contractor that Griffith was bowling extremely quick and perhaps he was chucking, too.

Griffith followed that up with a brilliant series in England in 1963. He did better than even his famed pace colleague, Wes Hall, and took 32 wickets in five Tests. West Indies went on to win that series.

By that time, there was a suspicion that he was chucking. In 1964-65, when Australia toured the Caribbean, they lodged a complaint against Griffith for chucking. They were joined in by some English players, too. By then, it was clear that Griffith had become cautious about his action. During the 1966 tour of England, he was called for chucking by Arthur Fagg in a tour game between West Indies and Lancashire. Griffith looked a pale shadow of his former self when West Indies toured Australia in 1968-69 and soon faded away from the scene.

By Bharath Ramaraj