The Best Fairytale (Part 2)
MICHELLE MCDONALD continues her introduction of West Indies fast bowler Tino Best
Best recovered, and in only nine weeks. Soon he was playing again. One match he participated in was Fred Ramsey?s Pro-Am tournament in 2001 and his team mates included Gavin Hamilton from Scotland, Gary Harrison, and Ed Gittens from England and they said to him ?Damn mate, you?ve got some wheels!? Best laughed at these pronouncements of his ability. Now it was time for Barbados to include him in their trials for the 2002 Busta Cup regional tournament.
Tino was invited to trials, but he was nervous, got slaughtered and got cut from the trials. But he hung around, maintaining his presence around the squad which had now been cut to 22 players. Best was bowling in the nets on a day that he was more relaxed and Shaun Armstrong came around and talked to him.
Vice Captain Sherwin Campbell advised him that as players get hurt all the time, he was to hang around, bring his gears but not to change. Best said he didn?t want to look as if he was ?pimping? but followed Campbell?s advice nevertheless, especially since his grandmother had agreed. He got permission from his army sergeant David Sobers.
Campbell was right. As luck (for Best) would have it, Ian Bradshaw pulled up with an injury and Best was called in by Campbell who cleared it with Clinton St Hill, a selector. Tino is reflective when he says ?Let me tell you something Michelle...I bowled 28 overs, 4 for 100. Philo Wallace gave me points, Sherwin Campbell too. Courtney Browne [Barbados captain] was absolutely impressed and from there I never looked back. I actually pushed out some of the older fastbowlers like Hendy Bryan?.
Best was 20 years old. What made it so impressive, was that in the last session he bowled fast, and bowled out Ryan Hinds and Shirley Clarke. The next morning, Best had to go back and bowl and that same day, an article from Barbadian journalist Barry Wilkinson came out. ?Tino?s the Best, the Brits say? announced the headlines. Again, divine intervention? Best said to himself ?God don?t forget. My grandmother always prayed with me?.
Best made the Barbados Busta Cup team and, overcome with emotion at how far he reached, he cried. ?I was so happy. I was like ?oh my gosh, Tino Best, how you make the Barbados team? and then I said ?YES!? ? pumping fists to go with that. Didn?t he ever have thoughts of playing? Said Tino ?Not really. I had the thoughts of playing but everybody else was in the spotlight. I wasn?t the ?bomb? from 14 coming up?. His continual axing from the squad at trials made him continue to doubt himself.
There is one thing in particular that Tino recalls about his debut first class match. ?Fifth ball of my first over in the first game. Steve Bucknor was the umpire and I said ?right arm over? and I gave him my hat. He said to me ?you?re opening the bowling young man? Aren?t you a bit small for that?? Mr Bucknor probably thought I was bowling a little medium pace. The first ball was to Haniff. It was a quick throat cutter that Courtney Browne took about 30 yards back, plap in his gloves. When I was walking back, Steve Bucknor looked around and said ?my word young man, where you come from?? He was totally impressed?. Best returned figures of 15-2-50-4 in the first innings. Very impressive indeed.
After a decent debut season in 2002 where Best picked up 17 wickets, he got a contract to play with Medley Cricket Club in Shropshire, England. The next year he set his targets at a modest 25 wickets. He thought to himself that anything over that would be ?brawta?. By his own account ?I trained and trained and trained. I trained so hard?. His haul turned out to be 39 and the most wickets in the competition. Nine of those came against India ?A? where Laxman said ?you look good to make the test team?. Best said ?no, not me, not yet man?.
But the selectors couldn?t help but pick him to play in Barbados against the Australians in the 3rd test. Best always kept worrying about his line and length and about his action. He admits of his selection that he was nervous but asked God to help him. ?If it aint my time to shine, don?t let me shine, if You going to let me get licks today, let me get licks, but at least I going to try. And I remember the wicket was so horrible and I still tried to fight through it and obviously I didn?t get any success?. But then he hit a serious drought and was severely punished, returning figures of 20-1-99-0. Then the inevitable axe came down on him once again.
That performance would have derailed any young man, especially one who didn?t think he was good enough in the first place to have captured the most wickets in only his second First Class season. In analyzing his performance, he said he was ?erratic?, a criticism echoed by the most knowledgeable of cricket analysts.
But equipped with his army training and a very good work ethic, Best had the necessary tools to rise again. Or perhaps it was because of what the people in Barbados kept saying to him that provided the motivation. Best remembers ?People would be saying ?you?d never make it back, you were never no good, you were just like your uncle? ?. He kept asking God to help him and reckons the criticism actually made him stronger. He set his sights on the Carib Beer competition for 2004.
Divine intervention was to occur again.
Best recounts his encounter with former West Indies and Barbados fast bowler Wayne Daniel. ?We were going into the 2 week camp for the 2004 season, and I was eating some Chinese and I saw Wayne Daniel?. After Gilchrist, he was the quickest West Indian bowler. Best could reel off Daniel?s stats. Tino continues ?I went up to him and said ?Good Afternoon Mr Daniel, my name is?? ?. Before he could finish, Daniel said ?I know who you are young man?. Best politely asked him if he could ?please take the time out to help me with my action and help me to bowl line and length?. No problem young man.
From January 2004 till now, Best says that Daniel has become like a father to him. For a young man who grew up without his father, this was welcomed. Daniel is credited for turning around Tino?s erratic action. How did he change the action? Tino explains. ?Before I let go the ball, my hand was all over the place so what Wayne said was ?we going to get you tighter like in a traditional nice up hand, pulling down the leaver? ?.
This was to be worked on in the 2-week camp and Tino doubted if he could make the change so quickly. ?Man Wayne, I can?t get that do?. Daniel said ?Try. Try?. He did. They went through spot bowling. Daniel would make him jog up slow and try it. Next instructions sounded like a drill sergeant in the army from where Tino had come. ?When you bathing think about it, when you?re eating think about it, just think about change, about change, about change?.
Tino Best listened. In the first game against Guyana this year, everybody said ?Bessy change up?. Daniel remained close and coached him during the interval. ?Stay tight, don?t go outside. Just remember if you don?t bowl like this, you can?t get no pace?. Best says that as he ran up, he would say to himself ?stay tight, stay tight?. One improvement Best notes is that he now finds that he?s looking at the target longer. His head was coming down a lot straighter. But there is much work to be done.
Despite that, Best again was the leading wicket taker in the 2004 Carib Beer tournament until he got injured in his instep. He played 2 games less than his team mate Pedro Collins and still ended up in 2nd position. He couldn?t believe he was getting so many wickets just by looking at the stumps longer. His most memorable game in this competition was against Jamaica at Sabina Park, something which the Jamaican team would no doubt like to forget. Besides starring with the bat in a last wicket partnership with Sulieman Benn in the 2nd innings, Best took 8 wickets and was awarded Man-of-the-Match.
Best is philosophical about it all. ?My grans, when I was doing so well I said to her ?why I stay so strong, after being dropped from the West Indies and seeing all sort of fast bowlers coming, why I didn?t lose focus, why I didn?t finish with cricket?. I asked my Gran that question?. Her response was equally profound. She said ?Tino, God always puts the most loved and the most respected people through the most, the hardest tribulations?. Tino adds that ?no one expected me to come in the Carib Cup and get more wickets at a quicker rate and an economy rate so good. Everybody was looking for me to get 11 wickets and get dropped.
I think the changing point in my career was going up to Wayne Daniel in the Chinese restaurant and talking to him?. Wayne Daniel was the Chosen One but now Best must lead his people out of the darkness and into the light.
Tino Best has been tried in the fire. Like gold, with each centigrade of heat, he gets stronger.