Carlisle Best

Carlisle Best

Personal information
Full name	Carlisle Alonza Best
Born	(1959-05-14) 14 May 1959 Richmond Gap, Saint Michael, Barbados
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm off break Right-arm medium pace
Role	Batsman
Relations	Tino Best (nephew)
International information
National side	West Indies
Test debut	21 February 1986 v England
Last Test	23 November 1990 v Pakistan
ODI debut	4 March 1986 v England
Last ODI	16 January 1992 v India
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1979–1994	Barbados
1993–1994	Western Province
Career statistics
Competition Tests ODIs FC LA Matches 8 24 90 79 Runs scored 342 473 5,439 1,942 Batting average 28.50 24.89 38.85 29.87 100s/50s 1/1 1/2 13/24 2/12 Top score 164 100 179 137* Balls bowled 30 19 1,642 682 Wickets 0 0 24 14 Bowling average – – 32.16 40.78 5 wickets in innings 0 0 0 0 10 wickets in match 0 0 0 0 Best bowling 0/2 0/4 3/29 2/22 Catches/stumpings 8/– 5/– 107/– 21/–
Source: Cricket Archive, 19 October 2010

Carlisle Alonza Best (born 14 May 1959) played eight Tests and 24 One Day Internationals for the West Indies. A right-handed batsman, his time as a cricketer is remembered for his unusual habit of commentating on himself while batting. He is the uncle of fast bowler Tino Best.

Playing career

Best first came to attention when he scored more than 800 runs in the Barbados leagues in 1976, while still a schoolboy. This secured selection for the West Indies youth championship, in which he scored a century for Barbados against Guyana. In turn, he was then picked for a West Indies youth team tour of England in 1978.

Best hooked his third ball in Test cricket for six off the bowling of Ian Botham at Kingston, Jamaica, in February 1986.With this rare feat,he became only the second test cricketer to start his test career(to get off the mark) by scoring a six after Eric Freeman of Australia.Best is also the only West Indian test cricketer to achieve this feat.

Following a series of low scores, Best was dropped after just three Tests. He felt aggrieved: "I was the most disappointed and hurt man in the world, he said. We were 3-0 up, no pressure was on us and I was unceremoniously discarded. I never had a chance to develop."

An opportunity to captain was granted in late 1986, when Best was appointed to lead a West Indies B team tour of Zimbabwe, but a recall to the full Test side was not to come until 1990, when he was 30. Best, now aged 30, made a century on his home ground in Barbados. He also made a century in Guyana in the corresponding one-day international series. Before that, he was selected for the West Indies squad for the 1987 Cricket World Cup. He made the team for two of West Indies' six matches, scoring 23 runs at an average of 11.5, with a high score of 18.

Personality and family

While batting, Best was known for an unusual habit: commentating audibly on his own performance, referring to himself in the third person:

"[David Boon]] recalled, it was as if someone had brought a radio to the middle.

"He'd be facing up," Boon said, "and he'd be chattering away like: 'And Best faces up to Alderman, who's at the top of his mark. He's one of the world's best swing bowlers . . . he comes in with his fluent and powerful run-up, he lets it go . . . and Best lets it go outside off stump. You should have hit that for four, Carlisle Best'.

"Other times he'd say things like, 'And Best comes forward - perfect front-foot defence'."

On other occasions ... Best would aggravate bowlers with commentary such as: "And Best rocks back and pulls it for four. Craig McDermott must surely know by now, you can't be bowling there to Carlisle Best."

"It was just comical," Boon said."

Today, Carlisle Best works in PR for a bank. Best's great-nephew is fellow West Indian cricketer, Tino Best.