West Indian cricketer Joe Solomon, who has died aged 93, was the man whose run-out of Australian Ian Meckiff set up the first-ever draw – in Brisbane in 1960.
Solomon’s contribution to one of the most celebrated cricket matches in history was especially impressive given the nerve-wracking circumstances of the final. With the score level and one wicket remaining, Australia needed just one run off the last two balls for victory. When Lindsay Kline entered the infield after Wes Hall’s penultimate pitch, he seemed to have done enough for the win. But Solomon came in, picked up the ball perfectly and, with only one stump to aim at, knocked down the wicket with a direct delivery before Kline’s batting partner, Meckiff, could cross the line.
Wild scenes of celebration followed, including some Australian fans who, although hurt by the outcome, appreciated the thrill of witnessing such a rare event. It was the first tie in 84 years of Test history, and there has only been one since: India against Australia in 1986 in Madras (now Chennai).
As Solomon’s teammate Garfield Sobers said after the match, Australia might have had a chance of getting that final point if anyone other than the brilliant Solomon had played the ball. “They picked the wrong guy – there was no one better than Joe,” he said. Before his telling last-minute intervention, Solomon had also dismissed Alan Davidson earlier in Australia’s second innings, again with a direct hit with one stump to aim at – described by Sobers as “a match-saving piece of fielding brilliance”.
Solomon’s batting talents, which earned him selection in 27 Tests for the West Indies from 1958 to 1965, rarely reached the level of his excellence in the field, but he was nonetheless very useful in the middle order for his side. Although naturally free-flowing in regional cricket, at Test level he adopted a more reliable, hard-nosed outlook as a counterpoint to the aggressive nature of great performers like Sobers and Rohan Kanhai. Patient at the crease, he provided a stabilizing influence when the going got tough – something he showed to great effect in both innings of the drawn Test, making 65 and then 47 to keep things together for his team.
Solomon was born in Port Mourant in the Berbice region of British Guiana (now Guyana) and was the third of five children of John, a butler to the general manager of the local sugar plantation, and Marian. Both his parents were Catholics of Tamil descent, whose ancestors had traveled to Guyana as indentured servants to work on the sugar plantations.
Solomon was one of several Guyanese cricketers, including Kanhai and Basil Butcher, who benefited from an enlightened move by the local Sugar Producers Association (SPA) to appoint West Indies Test player Clyde Walcott as cricket organizer for the country’s sugar plantations . While attending the local high school in Corantijn, Solomon had developed his throwing accuracy by knocking mangoes out of trees and aiming flat stones at the fruit’s stems to bring them to the ground without damage. After honing other skills under Walcott, he played first for Port Mourant and then for the East Indian Cricket Club (later renamed Everest) in the capital Georgetown.
Representative matches for Berbice followed, and he made his first-class debut for British Guiana against Jamaica in 1956, making 114 not out in that match, followed by 108 against Barbados in the same season and 121 in his next match after that, against the Pakistan touring team 1958 – Earned for himself the extraordinary and exclusive achievement of scoring a hundred in his first three first-class innings. Selected for the 1958-59 West Indies tour to India and Pakistan, he proved his worth with a number of important innings in the middle order, not least with scores of 45 and 86 on debut in the second Test against India in Kanpur and a flawless 100 not out in the fifth match in Delhi.
He finished top of the averages on that leg of the tour and also did well in Pakistan, but had less joy the following year in two Tests at home against England in which he was asked to open the batting. Returning to the middle order for the 1960–61 series in Australia, he became one of the most popular visiting players – so much so that Australian captain Richie Benaud was booed by his own fans in Melbourne when Solomon’s cap fell on his head. stumps, leading to a successful appeal from Benaud for hit wicket.
Solomon was an excellent teamman and was especially valued as a friend and confidant by his captain, Frank Worrell, whose spirited leadership helped make the Australian series such a spectacle that the West Indian players were cheered with a ticker through the streets of Melbourne . tape parade to mark the conclusion.
Solomon played four of the five Tests at home against India in 1961–62 and appeared in all five on the tour to England in 1963 before his final series, at home against Australia in 1965. He was more or less an ever-present player since his debut, he retired at the age of 34, but continued to play for Guyana until 1969. In his Test career he scored 1,326 runs at an average of 34, and in first-class cricket he averaged 41.54. An occasional leg-spinner, he also took 51 wickets, four of which came in Tests.
Parallel to his cricket career, Solomon had worked for a number of years in the accounting office of a sugar plantation, often taking time off on half pay when asked to tour. In 1961 he was appointed by the SPA as a cricket advisor, to assist Walcott in continuing his coaching and organization of young talent on the sugar plantations of Guyana.
After retiring as a player, he continued that work, while also serving in various positions with the Guyana Cricket Board, including as president, honorary secretary and chairman of the squad. He was also Guyana’s representative on the West Indies Cricket Board of Control, for which he acted as selector.
In 1978 he was appointed manager of the West Indies tour to India, just as the team had been deprived of most of its best players by defections to Kerry Packer’s breakout tournament. Thanks in part to Solomon’s man-management skills, learned by Worrell and Walcott, a young and largely untested side came away with a creditable 1–0 defeat.
In the mid-1980s, Solomon moved to New York, although he continued to visit his home country regularly. His wife, Betty (née Dharry), whom he married in 1959, predeceased him
• Joseph Stanislaus Solomon, cricketer, born August 24, 1930; died December 8, 2023