Courtney Walsh

Courtney Walsh is a famous former international cricketer during 1984 to 2001, born on the 30th of October 1962 to parents Joan Wollaston and Eric Walsh and raised on Molynes Road in the Half Way Tree area, Kingston, Jamaica. He attended Excelsior High school, there Courtney specialized in Accounts and Commerce, and however, he was most passionate about cricket.

 

Courtney joined the Sunlight Cup Cricket team at Excelsior where he made local history as the only school boy to capture all 10 wickets in an inning in a match against Camperdown High. He was selected as a member of the Jamaica youth team in 1983 where he contributed towards the team’s victories.

 

Walsh is best known for a remarkable opening bowling partnership along with fellow West Indian Curtly Ambrose for several years and holding the record of most Test wickets from 2000, after he broke the record of Kapil Dev. During the first part of his career, Walsh served as the “stock” bowler in an attack featuring Marshall, Joel Garner and later Ambrose, but after the retirement of Marshall and Garner took the role as opening bowler.

 

His action lacked the elegance of those bowlers, but its economy and his natural athleticism ensured he was accurate and durable, even over very long spells and he used his height (about 198 cm, or six-foot-six) to extract occasionally vicious bounce.

 

Walsh first captained the West Indies on a tour of India in 1994. As the permanent captain in 1996, he led the team to victories over India and New Zealand, but after a 3–0 series defeat by Pakistan; he lost the captaincy contentiously to Brian Lara another famous cricketer. Courtney Walsh probably bowled faster for longer than any man in history.

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His spirit was as unbreakable as his body, urging him on to the previously undreamed-of heights of 519 Test wickets and 30,019 balls, not to mention the countless over’s he sent down for Gloucestershire and Jamaica. As he grew older and his ability to consistently bowl fast diminished, he developed a devastating slower ball and a deceptive in swinger.

 

Perhaps Walsh’s most formidable quality was his durability, as he rarely missed a Test match because of injury. By March 1999 he had become the complete fast bowler and only the third man to reach 400 Test wickets. On the 23rd of April 2001 he announced his retirement from a career that gained him his recognition.

 

Courtney now resides in upper St. Andrew with his two children, Courtney Walsh Junior, whose life ambition is to become the best bowler in the world, and Crystal Walsh.

 

He is also an entrepreneur who owns a sports shop called ‘Walsh’s Sports shop’ and a restaurant named “Cuddies” which is one of the most popular sports bar and grill in Jamaica.June 20th, 2005 a road where Melbourne Cricket Club is located was renamed ‘Courtney Walsh Drive’, which was previously known as Derrymore road. Although no longer a cricketer that everyone loved to enjoy watching on the field, his legacy still lives on.

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