Name:

Holding, Michael Anthony

Nickname:

Whispering Death, Mikey

Date of Birth:

16 Feb 1954

Gender:

Men

Place of Birth:

Kingston, Jamaica

Career:

Test: 1975 - 1987
ODI: 1976 - 1987

Teams:

West Indies (Country)
Jamaica (Regional)
Derbyshire (Regional)

Michael Holding: My career highlights in my own words

Mike Holding: Whispering death was member of Windies pace quartet

Born : 16 February 1954 at Half Way Tree, Kingston, Jamaica

Michael Holding was one of the great West Indian fast bowlers of the 1970s and 1980s. Known as 'Whispering Death' because of a light-footed run-up, he generated great speed and bounce. He was at the peak of his powers in the Test against England at The Oval in 1976 when he took 14-149 in the match, including 8-92 in the first innings. The 14 wickets included nine bowled and three lbws.

Holding was the scalpel of speed that evolved in the formula of supreme pace. Along with Andy Roberts, Joel Garner and Colin Croft — and later, Malcolm Marshall — he was part of the famed quartet of pacemen deployed by the Windies in the late 1970s and 1980s.

He bowled what is regarded as one of the great overs in Test to Geoff Boycott at Bridgetown in 1981. Each ball got progressively faster until the sixth ball clean bowled him. Although a moderate batsman he did score six Test fifties. He became a TV commentator in retirement.

It began intimidatingly far away. He turned, and began the most elegant long-striding run of them all, feet kissing the turf silently, his head turning gently and ever so slightly from side to side, rhythmically, like that of a cobra hypnotising its prey. Good batsmen tended not to watch him all the way lest they became mesmerised.

To the umpires he was malevolent stealth personified so they christened him Whispering Death. No-one in the game has bowled faster. His over to Geoff Boycott in the cauldron of Kensington Oval early in 1981 has gone down in history as the finest, fastest, most ferocious gambit of all time.

Five years earlier, towards the end of the drought-ridden summer of 1976, The Oval had become a wasteland, parched beyond recognition, with slow flat heart-breaking pitches, and it was on this, in the final Test of the season, through the simple device of bowling ramrod-straight at high pace and to a full length, that he conjured 14 wickets for 149, the finest match figures ever by a West Indian.

Now in the commentary box, he is gentle but fearless, a rational critic who beguiles with his deep fruity measured Jamaican twang.

Source: CricketCrowd Staff Reporter