Deadpan and deadly. Wicket or boundary, not a flicker of emotion would be evident save a gunslinger's narrowing of the eyes. Andy Roberts kept his emotions in check. But under the veneer was an intelligent cricketer with a fertile brain, plotting and planning the downfall of batsmen as if it were a military campaign. The modern West Indian game based on the heavy artillery of fast bowlers, that served so well for a quarter of a century, began with him. Here was a bowler whose pace came from timing, with power from a huge pair of shoulders. His bouncer was regarded as one of the most dangerous. He varied its pace, often setting batsmen up with a slower one and then poleaxing them when they were late on the quickie.

It took Roberts less than two and a half years to reach 100 Test wickets, the quickest at that point, and his best years were unquestionably in the middle 1970s, before the Packer revolution. Later he became jaded, and the edge went from his pace, although his experience and ability to move the ball kept him in Test cricket until 1983-84.
Mike Selvey

Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1975

• Stanford legends given the chop (Dec 17, 2008)
  
• Zed takes a raincheck (Jul 28, 2008)
  
• Ex-players back on WICB cricket committee (Mar 7, 2008)
  
• Bishop, Haynes, Roberts and Walsh dropped from WICB committee (Feb 3, 2008)
  
• Roberts awarded Antigua's second-highest civilian honour (Nov 3, 2007)
  

View the full list of 27 related articles

Mar 29, 2007 Andy Roberts offers his advice to Bangladesh's bowlers © TigerCricket.com

Mar 28, 2007 Andy Roberts helps Shahadat Hossain with his action © TigerCricket.com

Andy Roberts 2006 portrait © Siddhartha Vaidyanathan

View the full list of 10 related images