This month we’ll be looking back on the careers of several black cricketers who made an enormous impact in their time with Middlesex. We start with a true legend of the Club - Wayne Daniel - The Diamond.
WAYNE DANIEL - MIDDLESEX 1977 TO 1988
Wayne Wendell Daniel was born on 16th January 1956 in St Philip, Barbados.
Like many Bajans of his generation, Daniel fell in love with the game at an early age, and his tall, athletic, and muscular physique were the perfect attributes needed to become a hostile fast bowler.
Quickly impressing in the Barbados youth set-up, he was selected to play for the West Indies Young Cricketers, and first toured the UK with them in 1974, when in two Tests against England Young Cricketers he picked up two five wicket hauls and took twelve wickets at a miserly economy rate.
He returned the following year as a raw nineteen-year-old for a summer with Middlesex’s Second Eleven, before he had even made his First-Class debut, and the impact he had on Middlesex that year paved the way for a return to the Club when he would go on to even greater things.
In his maiden Second Eleven Championship appearance at Lutterworth, against Leicestershire Seconds in July of 1975, he picked up figures of 8 for 54 in the first innings and 4 for 53 in the second – a taste of things to come!
He returned home to Barbados later that year and went on to make his First-Class debut for Barbados against Trinidad and Tobago in January 1976 – taking a five-wicket haul in his very first innings at that level.
Such was Daniel’s talent that he made his West Indies debut just four months later in April, having played only four First-Class matches, when he played in the fourth Test against India in Sabina Park, Jamaica, opening the bowling with Michael Holding in a ten-wicket victory for the West Indies!
Daniel’s International career was set back somewhat by his involvement in Kerry Packer’s World Series, and like so many talented cricketers of that era, he never fully realised his international potential. Daniel’s two-year absence from the West Indies attack saw the likes of Malcolm Marshall, Colin Croft and Joel Garner come into the side, blocking the way for any immediate return to the international stage for Daniel.
In an era when it was commonplace for First-Class counties to import overseas quick bowlers to spearhead their pace attacks, Daniel was now fully on Middlesex’s radar, and having already made a mark in his earlier spell with the Club’s Second Eleven, Daniel was seen as the natural fit to lead the Middlesex attack.
In 1977 he duly joined back up with the Club and went on to arguably make more of an impression that any other overseas player in the Club’s history, carving out a staggeringly successful county career over the next decade or so.
His First-Class debut for Middlesex came at the Oval against London rivals Surrey and showed little of what was to come, as he returned match figures of 1 for 40 and was out-bowled in the game by Middlesex teammates Mike Selvey and Allan Jones. What was clearly evident however was that raw pace, that frightening length that had batters hopping and ducking on the back foot, deep in their crease, as Daniel hit the deck hard and peppered their ribs with vicious short deliveries.
That inauspicious debut was soon forgotten, as in just his fourth game for Middlesex Daniel picked up the first of the twenty-two five-wicket hauls he took for the Club and took 10 for 76 in the game to take the first of four ten-wicket match hauls for Middlesex.
52 Championship wickets that summer at an average of 21.26 were more than enough to earn Daniel a return to the Club the following year, and a career with Middlesex which spanned twelve years had begun.
It is rumoured that summer that it was Middlesex colleague Mike Smith who gave Daniel the nickname of ‘the Diamond’, which from that point on he became affectionately known as.
In that twelve-year career with Middlesex, Daniel wrote himself into Middlesex record books, taking 685 first-class wickets for the Club in the County Championship, including best figures of 9 for 61 taken against Glamorgan at Swansea in 1982 – that year he took 71 first-class wickets at just 17.53. His best season return for Middlesex came in 1985, when he took 79 wickets at 26.72.
His haul of 685 first-class wickets came at just 22.02 and sees Daniel sat in 18th place in the all-time leading wicket takers table for Middlesex ahead of the likes of Angus Fraser and Mike Selvey, both who he played with for large parts of his career in the county game.
In List-A cricket Daniel was no less effective for the Club, and his figures of 7 for 12 remain the best ever figures returned in a List-A fixture by a Middlesex bowler, secured in 1978. Those figures and the 6 for 15 he took against Sussex in 1980 and his 6 for 17 against Sussex in 1978 all appear inside the top ten all-time List-A bowling figures for Middlesex.
The 316 List-A wickets he took position him in fourth place in all time List-A wicket takers for the Club, behind only John Emburey, Gus Fraser and Paul Weekes.
The 51 wickets he took in the 1980 season and the 48 he took in the 1984 season remain the top two season wickets hauls in the Club’s List-A history.
Daniel played a part in winning three County Championship titles outright for Middlesex in 1980, 1982 and 1985, and one shared title in 1977. In List-A cricket he helped Middlesex secure one-day silverware on six occasions, playing in the Gillette Cup winning side of 1977, the NatWest Trophy sides of 1980, 1984, and 1988, and the Benson & Hedges Cup winning sides of 1983 and 1986.
In all, Wayne Wendell Daniel made 422 appearances for the Club and took a staggering 1,001 wickets.
