Roy Fredericks: Slayer Of Fast Bowlers

[hawkeye]

Was there a better player of the hookshot? And is there a better innings than his 169 at Perth?

On the day my wife was born Roy Frederickshooked Dennis Lillee handsomely and high into the crowd at Lords, only to trod on his stumps after going too far back in his crease. This, at least, is what my Father-In-Law recently recalled to me. He got the call and was listening to the commentary enroute to the hospital when the incident occurred. But the records show that the World Cup final between Australia and the West Indies, which featured this event, was played on June 21st, 1975. Another set of records show that Petra Alaine was born to Ramsay and Elaine Hanson on June 23rd. I still have not suggested to him that he might have been mistaken.

Of all the elite batsmen to have come out of the Caribbean, Fredericks was perhaps the most fearless. Reflexes sharpened playing a lot of table tennis as a youth equipped him to become a masterful player of fast bowling and one of the game's most assured exponents of the hook shot.

Roy Fredericks: Slayer Of Fast Bowlers

 

[Samuels]

Roy Fredricks was one of the most fearsome hooker and puller the sport has ever seen. It takes a lot of courage to play express short bowling, to smack the ball from right front of the face when it bowled from someonlike Lilllee. Roy oozed with so much confidence that seldom left an opportunity to hook/pull no matter who the bowler was, no matter how fast the cherry had been bowled. He was one of those 'men' of cricket who would prefer a cap over a helmet or any such protection on the head, one who could not be ruffled by getting hit at raw pace. Such are the players that make cricket a treat to watch. The oohs and the aahs from the spectators as they play shots in immaculate fashion. Roy's 169 off 145 against the likes of Lillee and Thomson in an era when batsmen were more than happy to play for a draw. Heck even in 60 over ODIs there were hardly some scores of 200+ at the time showed what he was capable of. Unfortunately, he could not carry on his Test form into ODIs, the format tailor made for him.