Charlie Griffith

For the English football manager, see Charlie Griffith (footballer).

Charlie Griffith

Personal information
Full name	Charles Christopher Griffith
Born	(1938-12-14) 14 December 1938 Saint Lucy, Barbados
Batting style	Right-hand bat
Bowling style	Right-arm fast
International information
National side	West Indian
Test debut	25 March 1960 v England
Last Test	13 March 1969 v New Zealand
Career statistics
Competition Tests First-class Matches 28 96 Runs scored 530 1,502 Batting average 16.56 17.26 100s/50s –/1 –/4 Top score 54 98 Balls bowled 5,631 15,509 Wickets 94 332 Bowling average 28.54 21.60 5 wickets in innings 5 17 10 wickets in match – 1 Best bowling 6/36 8/23 Catches/stumpings 16/– 39/–
Source: [1]

Charles Christopher "Charlie" Griffith (born 14 December 1938) is a West Indian former cricketer who played in 28 Tests from 1960 to 1969. He formed a lethal fast bowling partnership with Wes Hall during the 1960s. In the 1961/62 season, a delivery from Griffith cracked Indian batsman Nari Contractor's skull, prematurely ending Contractor's international career.

When Griffith started playing club cricket in Barbados at a young age it was as a right-arm spinner. During one game he decided to bowl right arm fast and finished with figures of 7 for 1. He remained a fast bowler and soon after was chosen to represent Barbados. His first-class debut was made against the Marylebone Cricket Club who were touring the Caribbean in 1959/60 and in the space of two overs he dismissed England internationals Colin Cowdrey, Mike Smith and Peter May.

In the match between Barbados and the touring Indians in 1961/62, Nari Contractor was hit on the back of the head by a Griffith bouncer. After being helped from the field, Contractor started to bleed profusely, having suffered a fractured skull. Two emergency operations were required to removes blood clots on his brain. Although he recovered from his injury, he never played Test cricket again. Later in the match Griffith was no-balled by umpire Cortez Jordan for throwing, the first of two times that he was called during his career. The other occasion was a tour match against Lancashire in 1966, when Griffith was called by Arthur Fagg.

Griffith had a successful tour of England in 1963, finishing the summer with 119 wickets at 12.3, 32 of them coming in the Test series. In the first innings of the Headingley Test he took 6 for 36 and finished the match with 9 wickets. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1964.