Bernard Denis Julien, the elegant Trinidadian allrounder who helped usher the West Indies into the one-day era, has died at 75. A member of Clive Lloyd’s victorious 1975 World Cup squad, he was confirmed to have passed away in Trinidad on the night of October 4.
Born in Carenage on March 13, 1950, Julien was that rare blend: a right-hand batter who could both swing it briskly left-arm fast-medium and, when needed, switch to left-arm spin. He played 24 Tests and 12 ODIs for West Indies from 1973–1977, scoring 866 Test runs at 30.92 with two centuries and taking 50 Test wickets; in ODIs he added 18 wickets.
His Test batting announced itself at Lord’s in 1973: a sparkling 121 from 127 balls in only his third Test, alongside Garry Sobers. With the ball he was a partnership-breaker, his best figures 5/57.
In the 1975 World Cup he was vital in the middle overs: 4/20 v Sri Lanka, 4/27 in the semi-final v New Zealand, and a composed 26* in the final at Lord’s as West Indies beat Australia. Contemporary tributes have rightly highlighted that measured spell-bowling and his cool under pressure; some accounts also credit him with 2/38 in the final’s squeeze.
Julien’s county years with Kent (1970–1977) cemented his reputation as a crowd-pleaser - -cap #152 -- contributing with both bat and ball in title-winning sides and leaving an imprint on those who watched him glide to the crease and whip through the line.
His international career, like several of his generation, was shortened by the pull of World Series Cricket and later the rebel tours to apartheid-era South Africa, after which he did not return to the West Indies side. Post-playing, he served in sport and coaching back home in Trinidad and Tobago.
Stylish, versatile, dependable—that’s how team-mates and historians have remembered Bernard Julien. For West Indies supporters, he remains the archetypal 1970s allrounder: afro haloing the whites, easy rhythm with bat and ball, and a knack for delivering precisely when a game needed tilting. Rest easy, Bernard.