HUW TURBERVILL: The former Windies quick has been helping the tireless Tamara Lowe, who runs The Cricket Kindness Project, distribute kit to youngsters in the Caribbean
Tino Best has refused to condemn the pitch used for the second Test at the Kensington Oval in Barbados and says the lack of 90mph bowlers like him was the problem.
The ex-West Indies quick was speaking to The Cricketer exclusively on a visit to his former primary school, Eagle Hall, a short distance from the famous old ground.
The 40-year-old has been helping the tireless Tamara Lowe, who runs The Cricket Kindness Project. She has accumulated an extraordinary amount of new and quality pre-loved kit to give to youngsters in the Caribbean – and the pupils at Eagle Hall were thrilled.
"It was an enthralling Test,” said Best, "but neither team can bowl 90mph. As far as I am concerned that stops the wicket being called flat.
"No one touched that speed in the two matches. You need to get it up there and shaping away – get batsmen on the back foot. Mark Wood or Jofra Archer could have done it, or West Indies’ Shannon Gabriel."
But Best did not approve of the hosts picking Veerasammy Permaul as the front-line spinner.
"He has a good first-class record but Jomel Warrican has a better strike rate (47.9 to 51.5 in first-class cricket; 65.7 to 68.1 in Tests).
"I’d also have had Roston Chase in the squad. He took an eight-for against England (8 for 60 at Barbados in 2018/19). Just because he hasn’t made runs in the last four innings or something doesn’t matter."
Best celebrates reaching 50 at Edgbaston in 2012 - but he couldn't convert it into a maiden Test century (Andrew Yates/AFP/Getty Images)
There was much talk about why the locals didn’t really turn out for the Test, in comparison to the many thousands of England fans, but Best said: "Don’t be fooled. People love cricket here, and Test cricket will always be the pinnacle.
"You want to make your peers respect you. IPL will make you a millionaire, but Test cricket is what you are going to be remembered for. I never played in the IPL but the English fans remember me.
"Someone like Kieron Pollard – what has he done in international cricket? No Test match under his belt makes it null and void for me. I don’t disrespect him for what he has achieved, but guys like me or Kemar Roach will get more respect. You are not going to respect someone who hits four sixes but can’t play a forward defensive."
Best shared his recollections of school with the youngsters. "It’s an amazing place, I have so many memories, including getting lashes for hitting someone’s car with a ball. I get goosebumps when I am back here, to be able to show them all how far I have come. They are putting me on a mural."
Best’s Test career started badly in 2002/03 when he went wicketless on debut against Australia at his home ground. A year later he battled back to be West Indies’ leading wicket-taker against England, albeit in a 3-0 defeat.
"He called me into the room and said he would put me back on the next flight to Barbados. I said, ‘Fine, I live in beautiful Barbados, make sure I get paid until September’."
"I took 12 wickets but had nine dropped catches," he said. "But it was redemption for me after the Australia Test – I was dropped for a year! Wayne Daniel helped me reconstruct my action. Against Australia I was bowling 86-90mph; Wayne worked with me for months and got me up to 97mph. I knew then that I belonged."
He suffered a stress fracture of his back in England in 2004, and will always be remembered for the ‘mind the windows’ incident at Lord’s. Andrew Flintoff said that from slip when Best was batting, and it goaded him to being stumped.
"The older I get the more I absolutely love that it happened. Me and Freddie had beef from the Caribbean. I was giving him lip, and he was giving me chat back.
"Ashley Giles kept getting me out, and it was a monkey on my back for seven years. Next time I played England in 2012, and I was thinking I’ll never live the windows thing down.
"Freddie was even tweeting about it. I came in at No.11, and Ottis Gibson said to me to score 25 – but I gave him 95. I was going for the windows again, trying for a six, and was caught off a top edge off a slower ball from Graham Onions – I was looking to hit it to London!"
Best also spent a summer playing for Yorkshire in 2010 and has revealed he was almost thrown out of the club by then director of cricket Martyn Moxon, though he does not believe the incident was motivated by race.
Best is partnered with The Cricket Kindness Project (The Cricketer)
"What’s been going on has been a shame," he said. "I had no trouble – Yorkshire folk were brilliant and electrifying in terms of their passion for cricket. I have nothing bad to say about that.
"Janet Bairstow looked after me. Martyn Moxon was great – I mean I had a tussle with him, but it was a ‘dis’ [disrespected] rather than a racial line.
"Jonny Bairstow scored a brilliant century against Warwickshire – I knew then he’d play for England. I was the 12th man. Martyn came to high five me and I shunned it. I laughed: ‘I am not going to high-five you coach, you dropped me'.
"Emotions were high. He called me into the room and said he would put me back on the next flight to Barbados. I said, ‘Fine, I live in beautiful Barbados, make sure I get paid until September’.
"Later he said it was nothing, 'something he'd say to any other player'. So it was cool – more hotheaded than racial. I encountered no racism in the streets, restaurants or clubs – everything was brilliant.”
Best had a lively career and now his focus is on coaching strength and conditioning, and commentary. He is also enjoying working with The Cricket Kindness Project, which has sent 3,650 bats, 4,250 balls, 1,400 pairs of pads, 950 pairs of gloves, 9,000 cricket shirts, 850 stumps, plus helmets, trainers and kit bags to Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Trinidad, Nevis and Guyana.
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