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Anderson (''Andy'') ROBERTS

Andy Roberts was a shy 22-year-old from Antigua when he accompanied his pal Viv Richards to England in 1973. Richards went west, while Roberts joined Hampshire where he spent one season terrifying the country’s 2nd XI batsman while qualifying as an overseas player. In his one first-class match his figures were unremarkable but he knocked West Indies opener Steve Camacho out of that tour and at the end of the season had shown enough to win the overseas slot in preference to David O’Sullivan who, in the last month of the season had done as much as anyone to take Hampshire to the title.

In 1974, Roberts was a fierce and devastating an open bowler as anyone in Hampshire’s history. At Basingstoke, he did to Colin Cowdrey what he had done to Camacho and finished what was effectively his English debut season with 119 wickets at 13.62 each. In the following spring he was one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year. That this performance did not lead Hampshire to a second consecutive Championship trophy was almost wholly due to desperate luck with the weather in the closing weeks – and particularly the final four days when not a ball was bowled.

He headed the national averages again in 1975 although missing some matches in helping West Indies to win the first World Cup and he and Greenidge toured again in 1976 by which time Roberts was part of the first fearsome quartet of Caribbean pacemen. In 1977 he had problems with an ankle injury and, always a quiet man, he did not seem to be enjoying his county cricket.

By 1978 the cricket world was confronted by the Packer crisis and Roberts was one of three Hampshire players whose involvement in the Australian initiative threatened their place in the county game. In the event, two of them, Roberts and Richards chose to depart from Hampshire during the following year, at which point Roberts had taken 244 wickets for the county in just 58 matches at 16.70. In limited overs he contributed to the first two Sunday League titles and took 104 wickets at 13.65 with an incredible rate of just 2.55 runs conceded per over.

In 47 Test Matches he took over 200 wickets, while there were 889 wickets at 21.01 in his career. His batting was generally unremarkable although he was capable, with 10 first-class fifties. Apart from 1974, Roberts sometimes frustrated Hampshire’s supporters in his relatively short stay but in that one season – and for his international achievements - he warrants inclusion as one of Hampshire’s modern Legends. The thought of seeing him open with Malcolm Marshall is rather thrilling – except for opposition batsmen!