John Goddard

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Goddard West Indies (WI)
Batting style	Left-handed batsman (LHB)
Bowling type	Right-arm medium, offbreak
	Tests	First-class
Matches	27	111
Runs scored	859	3769
Batting average	30.67	33.35
100s/50s	0/4	5/17
Top score	83*	218*
Balls bowled	2931	10295
Wickets	33	146
Bowling average	31.81	26.33
5 wickets in innings	1	4
10 wickets in match	0	0
Best bowling	5/31	5/20
Catches/stumpings	22/0	94/0
Test debut: 21 January 1948 Last Test: 24 August 1957 Source: [1]

John Douglas Claude Goddard (April 21, 1919-August 26, 1987) was a cricketer and one-time captain of the West Indies Test side.

Goddard was born in Fontabelle, St Michael, Barbados. He captained the West Indian team through several tours, including West Indies' maiden tours of India and New Zealand. His first stretch as a captain started in the late 1940s and lasted five series. The West Indies won eight and drew five out of 17 matches.

His captaincy was not without controversy, however; he and Jeff Stollmeyer had a long-running feud throughout their careers. Stollmeyer stated that Goddard had received too much credit for West Indies' success in the 1950 tour of England, and that the other officers of the side had received too little. These comments, coming as they did after the West Indies disastrous tour of Australia in 1951/52, led to long-standing animosities and splinters in the West Indian leadership. [2] Later, when Goddard was picked to captain the tourists in the tour of England in 1957, Stollmeyer quit first-class cricket for good. Unfortunately, Goddard's tourists did horribly on this tour as well, losing three out of four.

Goddard died in London in 1987.

[edit] External links

Player Profile: John Goddard from Cricinfo

• Cricinfo story on Chanderpaul captain controversy

Preceded by: Gerry Gomez	West Indies Test cricket captains 1947/8 - 1951/2	Succeeded by: Jeffrey Stollmeyer
Preceded by: Denis Atkinson	West Indies Test cricket captains 1957	Succeeded by: Gerry Alexander