Just reward for skill and stamina

Walsh’s achievement, at the age of 37 and in his 114th Test, is an outstanding feat of great skill, immense stamina and considerable resolve at a time when the volume of Test cricket is far greater than in Trueman’s day.

Moreover, during the last five years the indefatigable Walsh has carried the attack with Curtly Ambrose because West Indies have been unable to field their customary battery of four fast bowlers of high quality.

It was a strategy that produced West Indies’ all-conquering sides of the 1980s and early 1990s, until they could no longer find the top-class replacements to give Walsh and Ambrose the support their predecessors had enjoyed.

Walsh subsequently shouldered his part of the burden in uncomplaining fashion, as well as taking on the responsibility of captaining the side in 1994 and 1996-97 and continuing to play for English county Gloucestershire.

Throughout this phase, the skills he learned in his native Jamaica, which were developed in England and honed to perfection on Test grounds around the world, remained undiminished.

Walsh has always been a thinking cricketer, as he showed in the way he adjusted to bowling in English conditions.

His 1984 debut season, restricted by West Indies’ tour of England, brought 18 wickets at an expensive 34.55 each but 12 months later he was savouring a haul of 82 county championship wickets at a mere 19.95.

Walsh, though certainly quick, has never generated speed in the manner of compatriot Michael Holding, with whom his Test career overlapped in the mid-1980s. Supple, with a high action, Walsh achieves disconcertingly awkward bounce, while his variations in pace and length have brought about the downfall of many batsmen.

What sets Walsh apart in the world of Test fast bowling is his fitness record. The fact he suffers very few injuries has been a key element in the durability that has taken him past some significant landmarks.

He became West Indies leading Test wicket-taker by passing Malcolm Marshall’s mark of 376 in November 1998, then joined Kapil and Sir Richard Hadlee in March 1999 as the only bowlers to take 400 Test wickets. Breaking Kapil’s world mark was the crowning achievement.

With a three-Test series against Pakistan in the Caribbean to come, followed by a tour of England that includes five Tests, Walsh could set a daunting target for those with an eye on his record.