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Joel Garner

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Joel Garner is a legendary cricket player from the West Indies. He was born on December 16, 1952, in Enterprise, Barbados. Back then, Enterprise was a place with houses scattered among sugar cane fields.

Cricket was a popular game for him as a child. He played for his school, Foundation Boys, as an all-rounder. A coach named Seymour Nurse noticed his great height. Nurse told him he was too big to be a batsman. He suggested Garner should use his size to bowl fast instead.

Garner became a master of bowling with great skill. He learned from coaches like Charlie Griffith and Gary Sobers. Griffith taught him how to bowl a yorker that swung in the air. He also learned how to use a bouncer effectively. A yorker is a ball that hits the ground near the batter's feet.

Because he was 6 feet 8 inches tall, his ball bounced very steeply. This made it very hard for batters to hit the ball forward. He was one of the tallest fast bowlers in the history of the game.

His professional career took him to many different places. He first played for Littleborough in the Central Lancashire League. Later, he signed for Somerset for the 1977 season. During his three years at Littleborough, he took 334 wickets. At Somerset, he helped the team win five different trophies. He especially helped them win the 1979 Gillette Cup at Lords.

He also played for Barbados and South Australia during his career.

Garner was part of a very strong West Indies team. This group of bowlers helped the team not lose a Test series for 15 years. He played in 58 Test matches between 1977 and 1987. He took 259 wickets in those matches. He was also a star in One Day International cricket. In 1979, he took five wickets for just 4 runs in a single spell. This was during the Cricket World Cup final against England.

Even after he stopped playing, Garner stayed busy in cricket. In 2010, he was put into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He even served as the interim manager for the West Indies in 2010. Today, he is the president of the Barbados Cricket Association. He also helps with Masters Cricket and works as a selector.

His many records show he was one of the best bowlers ever. He remains a very important name in the history of the sport.

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