Reputation
Whilst his Test bowling figures are not exceptional, and he was one of several particularly fast West Indies' bowlers at the time, Clarke nevertheless gained a reputation amongst his fellow players as the most intimidating and feared fast bowler of his generation. In his obituary in The Guardian, it was written "like the Jamaican Roy Gilchrist in the 1950s and his fellow Bajan, Charlie Griffith in the 1960s, Clarke's weaponry was based more on sheer menace than technical accomplishment."
Viv Richards claimed Clarke was the only bowler he did not feel comfortable batting against, David Gower stated that Clarke was by far the fastest man he ever faced, and in the mid-1980s Garry Sobers wrote that Clarke was "the quickest and most hostile fast bowler now playing in world cricket".
Clarke was not shy of delivering balls patently designed to scare opposing batsmen and make them look foolish, and was regularly capable of a perfect bouncer, which having pitched then cut away sharply to follow the path of a batsman's head as he swayed away from it. Having duly terrified the batsman, Clarke would often follow this up with a wicket-taking high speed yorker, which the shaken up batsman was in no condition to defend.
Though an affable and laconic personality off the pitch, Clarke had a quick temper on the field and regarded the battle between batsman and bowler as a personal trial of strength and character. He was quite aware that he could be a physically intimidating man, and was unafraid of using his size and power to his advantage in overawing batsmen psychologically. Once warned by an umpire for over-use of the bouncer, he replied: "Dis no ladies' game, man."
Read more about this topic: Sylvester Clarke
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