Our Test Star Luther Kelly
Believe it or not but come this test match Alfred Luther Kelly will be seeing one live for the very first time. It is hard to believe that a man who has spent so many years in cricket to never have seen a live test match or even a full one day international. These were the word coming from the man himself.
“I am praying that God spares my life until then so that I will be able to see my first test match…live,” said Luther Kelly with a half smile. There was silence as a bit of awe gripped the interview then, laughter. I laughed in disbelief and quickly told him that this should have been his secret for life.
No other person in the region would have such a horrid introduction to Regional Cricket than Luther Kelly. He got a last minute call to fill in for Enoc Lewis the Combined Islands opening bat who fell in just before a game in Barbados. It was the Geddes Grant Competition the old time version of the Regional One Day International. He cracked an impressive 45 and returned home since he was just “filling in”.
Even before he could settle down he was recalled to play in the longer version of the game and with just two days between games Luther found himself traveling the very day of the game. After an overnight in Antigua he got a round about trip down to St. Vincent then back up to St. Lucia before going on to Barbados. Naturally after all this time the game had already started. Fortunately Combined Islands was batting. When he got to the Grantley Adams he found out that the appointed taxi picked up someone else! An emergency fieldsman by the name of Beckles who was flown in for the game as well was mistakenly carried to the grounds instead of Luther. Telephone calls and a helpful immigration officer had Luther off in another taxi to hustle him to the ground. The short cut route took him thru a series of cane fields until he finally got to the grounds.
Imagine the scene, game in progress and Luther walks in with the cricket in full view. Marshall (yes Malcolm Marshall) tail in the air, was running in to bowl to Lockhart Sebastian (Dominica) who opened for Combined Islands with Shirlon Williams (St. Kitts).
Commentators voice “Marshall runs in delivers a short and nasty one that rears and strikes Sebastian on the helmet…Sebastian hadn’t a clue about that one.” Moments after Sebastian begins to signal to the dressing room that he wants to come out. Seeing that Sebastian was in trouble Captain Viv Richards give the instructions to Luther to get ready to bat.
Luther immediately dons his gear, bat, gloves etc. and tried to settle down. Even before he could do so he heard Viv’s voice booming at him “I thought I told you to get ready to bat” Viv said. “But I am ready” was the furtive reply. “Son we don’t play cricket in that type of clothing,” Viv said and left Luther scrambling back to his kit. Luther was all decked in his black police pants and boots as well as his nice blue shirt jack.
What happened Luther you were nervous or what? I posed the question.
“Nervous?? I was very scared and all the rushing around coupled with fact that I had nothing to eat made it worse but it did not end there,” Luther said.
Sebastian got bowled and even before Luther could finish eating and dressing all at the same time Sebastian walked in the dressing room. Out walked Luther Kelly shaking like a Baptist lady under a spell. At the other end was the tall fearsome figure of Joel Garner of West Indies fame. Garner loped in a bowled to Kelly.
“I was expecting more pace from Garner and pushed at the ball too early. It took my edge and I looked back in time to see Ricky Skeete flooring the catch.” (Skeete now holds a special place in Luther’s heart as he spared him from a first ball duck in his 1st first class match. After the shaky start in which his first scoring shot was a top edge just over gully, Kelly settled down with some encouragement from Shirlon Williams who was his compatriot. As confidence grew Luther played more shots. One was a hook forward of square off Sylvester Clarke and introduced his scathing square cut on Joel Garner. It was at that point that Tony Cozier who was commentating in the match declared that he had to take back the name Shotgun that he bestowed on Basil Williams and gave it to Luther “Shotgun” Kelly. Luther went on to score 60 in that innings and 20 in the second innings but the selectors like what they saw and from then on cemented his place in Luther’s entrance into cricket was not as rosy as one would think. He never played for a school team primary or High School. It was perchance that Leonard “Mikes” Harris saw him playing at the beach batting for a long period with older boys with a “compo” ball and encouraged him to join Park Rats. Later he played for Renown and then Police.
In all clubs he was a dominant batsman chalking numerous centuries at the local level. Over his playing time he opened with over 20 different openers for St. Kitts and 9 for Combine islands.
When we spoke of batsmen Luther said that early admiration was for Vance Amory from Nevis and Later Gordon Greenidge as both had similar styles. Apart from that, he also was great admiration for Jim Allen who seemed to have such an unorthodox stance but was extremely nimble to get into position with plenty of time to play or leave alone.
The most advice and tip I got however was from the Mikes though
Michael Holding was his most fierce opponent. Things grew to a height when Luther got 84 against Jamaica at Warner Park and the one day was in Nevis.
“It was like Holding was out for revenge. He bowled me 9 balls and I did not even tough one. The one that bowled me I did not see it at all. This was due to the fact that someone opened a window in the dressing room that also acted as the sight screen and I completely lost sight of the ball. All I could remember was seeing the hand come over then my stumps rattling. In the end I was glad that the ball struck the stumps and not me.”
Ray Winter was one to receive the most punishment for Kelly in any one game. Winter opened the bowling with Walsh and while Courtney had Enoc Lewis tied down at one end Kelly was merciless on Winter. The partnership got to 54 without loss. Kelly had just gotten to his 50 while Enoc was on 2 with 2 extras. Winter was treated to several cut shots, hooks and straight drives before the captain hid him somewhere backward of square.
Luther’s chance at test glory was in 1983 when he felt that he was at the peak of form. But the major criticism was that Kelly never went on to the three figure mark.
“Did this fact haunt you or were you ever conscious of it while batting?-” I asked the question.
Kelly said that he never really thought of that while batting. He played or tried to play every ball on its merit and it only after the criticism came more frequent that he consciously set out to score a century against the touring New Zealand test team and did. As usual he was quick to the 80 but from then on took his own dear time. From 90 to 102 took 35 minutes but this was just to silence the critics.
As a bowler Luther was just used to break partnerships. However at times he was very successful and proved to be an efficient miserly bowler. His best bowling figures was 5 for 27 against Montserrat in a Leewards game. This was a time when Buffong (snr) and Whyte held up the St. Kitts regular bowlers for a long while and he came on just to break the partnership. He ended with his best bowling figures at that level.
Kelly is currently umpiring with the aspiration of getting onto the elite panel of umpires. At one point he toyed with the idea of coming back to play 20/20 cricket for St. Kitts which in effect would have allowed him to break Edgar Gilbert’s record as the oldest man to play for St. Kitts but he decided against it and instead is concentrating on his umpiring.
Luther feels that it is a good thing to have test cricket here so that the youngsters could be encouraged and hopefully use it as a stepping stone towards us getting our first test selectee. “It is even more important to develop a proper legacy plan via the Ministry of Sport and Tourism and the St. Kitts Cricket Association so that there would be continuity and the facilities used in a proper manner,” Luther said.
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