Lancashire Cricket celebrates Black History Month: Part 3
This October, Lancashire Cricket is celebrating Black History Month in the UK. This national celebration aims to promote and celebrate Black contributions to British society, and to foster an understanding of Black history in general.
As part of our celebrations, we wanted to recognise some of the most famous black players to have pulled on the Lancashire Cricket and Thunder jerseys throughout history.
Up next, we have a profile on former Lancashire and West Indies batter, the one and only, Sir Clive Lloyd..
Arise, Sir Clive Lloyd read the headline on this very website to accompany the article which brought news of the Lancashire legend’s Knighthood in the 2020 New Year’s Honours list.
In truth, Red Rose fans far and wide will have surely viewed him as a quasi Sir long beforehand given his immense contribution as an overseas player to our great county.
West Indies all-round great Lloyd, who batted so elegantly yet powerfully left-handed and bowled skilful seam up - he was also a sensational fielder, is one of only two overseas players inducted into Lancashire’s 18-strong Hall of Fame.
The first group were honoured in 2020, of which Lloyd was one, with his name sitting proudly alongside former India wicketkeeper-batter Farokh Engineer.
Statistics tell you a lot of things, and we’ll get onto them in due course because this Guyanese cricketer was something truly special. But let’s first hear about what Lancashire meant to him.
“I played here over 19 years, and some of the best years of my cricketing life were here,” he said when inducted into Lancashire’s Hall of Fame.
“To me, I played for one of the best clubs in the world. The people here were so friendly, they made you feel at home. It was wonderful for me as a youngster coming into county cricket and not knowing what it would be like.”
Lloyd first signed for Lancashire in 1968 having impressed for Haslingden in the Lancashire League from 1967. At the end of 1966, Lloyd - in his early twenties by this stage - had already made his Test debut for the West Indies. It was the first of 197 international appearances, including 110 Test Matches, through to retirement in 1985.
Lloyd was a hero to many, be it supporters and players alike. Jack Bond was one of those who worshipped the ground he walked on. Mind you the feeling was mutual: “Jack Bond is a captain in a million,” Clive once said.
In the West Indies, Lloyd was revered for scoring 9,492 international runs with 20 centuries, added to 18 wickets. He remains one of their best ever captains.
He was the player-of-the-match in the first ever World Cup final, at Lord’s in 1975, when he scored a fabulous middle order 102 off 85 balls as West Indies posted 291-8 in 60 overs and defended it. He was captain that year, and again in 1979 when they defended their title by beating England at the same venue.
It is amazing to think - especially give the come-a-day, go-a-day nature of overseas players nowadays - that Lloyd score 12,764 runs for Lancashire from 219 appearances in first-class cricket alone between 1968 and 1986. He also claimed 55 wickets.
That dwarfs his vast contributions for the West Indies.
In List A cricket for the the county, he scored 8,522 runs added to 60 wickets. Again, he was a far bigger contributor to Lancashire than he was internationally.
Lloyd was a giant of a cricketer, in every sense. He stood at an imposing 6ft, 5inches, he was powerful, athletic, instinctive and had an aura about him which all the greats have.
In all, Lloyd, or Supercat - as the title of his excellent official biography by written Simon Lister suggests, won six major one-day trophies with Lancashire between 1969 and 1975.
He was also captain when they won the seven-a-side Lambert and Butler Trophy, scoring 83 not out in the 10-over final victory over Leicestershire at Chelsea Football Club’s Stamford Bridge. He had scored an unbeaten 81 in the semi-final win over Somerset at the same venue earlier on the same day.
Major titles; Lancashire won the Players County League title in 1969, followed a year later by the John Player League crown. The latter title formed part of the one-day double in 1970, with the first of four Gillette Cup successes in six years coming that summer.
He scored 66 in the final win over Kent in 1971 before a stunning 126 came in the following year’s triumph over Warwickshire, in which Jack Bond’s side won by four wickets chasing 235. He won the player-of-the-match award, also taking the new ball in that fixture and returning 0-31 from 12 overs.
It was one of his standout contributions in a Lancashire shirt, of which there were many.
He once hit 201 not out in exactly two hours against Glamorgan in a Championship match in 1976, for example. We digress.
Returning to the Gillette Cup, in 1975 he was player-of-the-match again as Middlesex were beaten by seven wickets at their home ground of Lord’s. This time he hit 73 not out in pursuit of 181.
Lloyd was honoured as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1971, them heralding his performances the summer before for Lancashire, who won the one-day double as aforementioned.
He scored 1,881 runs across all cricket for the county, including four hundreds, and took 38 wickets.
He captained Lancashire on 176 occasions in all cricket. He took on the job for a lot of 1974 and 1975 and again permanently in 1981 to 1983 and again in 1986.
Beyond retirement, his influence on the Red Rose county continued. Having settled in Greater Manchester, he was on the club’s committee from 1993 until 2012 and remains a vice president.
He has worked extensively as an ICC Match Referee and took on management of the West Indies team in the late 1990s. He was later appointed as the chair of the ICC’s cricket committee.
Sir Clive Hubert Lloyd. A true icon of Lancashire Cricket and one of our most favourite adopted sons.
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