“What are you drinking?” is Joel Garner’s greeting as I enter Annie’s, his favorite fish restaurant in Oistins Market, to meet for lunch.
Even at 71, Garner is instantly recognizable, standing 6-foot-8, draped in a maroon Cricket Legends of Barbados shirt. “Big Bird” was his nickname during his cricket career, but to most locals he is simply Joel or Joely.
Many traveling England fans know Oistins for his Friday night festivities. Garner prefers to come here for lunch, a meeting place for old friends. While chatting with friends he made as a student at Foundation Boys School, just half a mile away, he still playfully calls the one a few years younger “Junior.” Garner was prefect; few people, as you can imagine, would have dared to upset him.
“I was one of the good guys,” he says Telegraph sport with a little laugh. “I couldn’t behave badly because of my grandmother.”
With his parents working in the United States and Canada, Garner was largely raised by his grandmother. She was the one person Garner didn’t dare upset.
“She raised me. I couldn’t get away with nothing! She was just strict. You didn’t have the opportunity to do anything funny.
After leaving school at the age of 18, Garner quickly found employment with a telecommunications company. “I loved my job and had fun playing cricket. If you worked at Cable and Wireless you loved life, everyone you played cricket with was your friend and work colleague.
“When we played cricket on a Saturday, we were serious. Then we had more than a few beers – you got home at one or two in the morning.
He and his former cable and wireless teammates still meet up on the last Thursday of each month. “We have a drink and laugh.”
Lancashire League move was a turning point
Aged 23, in January 1976, Garner was selected for Barbados for the first time. Then he made the critical career decision, accepting a contract offer to play for Littleborough in the Central Lancashire League.
“A guy said to me, ‘I have a team in England looking for a pro.’ I said, ‘I don’t care. I enjoy my work, I enjoy myself.’ He said, ‘Come with England.’
“It lasted about six months. He kept asking me if I was interested. Finally, I said, “I have nothing to lose.” I took vacation time and had guys working my shifts. If I didn’t like cricket, I was going to come back to work. And then, after about two or three months, I submitted the letter.
Drummers around the world would turn to the choice of Garner Street. Within a year, he made his Test debut. Over the next decade, as he combined height with pace, seam movement and metronomic control, Garner took 259 wickets in Test cricket. Only one man to have taken as many Test wickets has a better average: Malcolm Marshall averages 20.94, Garner 20.97. Garner’s record was even more remarkable as he spent most of his career as a first or second change. “I wasn’t nervous. I didn’t get nervous playing cricket – I never did.
“Be careful not to go to the gym, my son”
As our swordfish arrives, accompanied by vegetables, peas and Garner’s favorite drink – rum and tonic – he explains how his attitude towards cricket immediately changed once he left his old job. “I really got serious when I quit my job to play professional cricket. It was a change for me because if you play professional cricket, you become a professional.
Garner was particularly meticulous in how he perfected his yorker. “Practice, practice. Just practice. When he was batting, whether in practice or in a match, he would look at the base of the stumps. “I’ll find the place there.” Drummers often knew exactly what to expect; doing something was another matter entirely. “I wasn’t interested in my speed or anything like that. Just results.
A fitness program also supported Garner’s career. In the off-season, “I ran and swam every day – every day.”
From his home in Christ Church, just minutes from where we meet in Oistins, Garner ran five miles every day. Then he would swim a mile and a half to the pier and back. Finally, he was going to train in the evening and play in the nets. “I’ve never had an unfit tour. I never really lost fitness. Out of season, I continued to run.
The only time Garner encountered injury issues was when he deviated from these methods.
“In 1982, I got injured. I had problems with my shoulder. I went to the gym and then learned my lesson. I was in the gym lifting weights, my trainer said, “Put them down. What you are doing is madness. What you want to do is try to strengthen the muscles. You’re not trying to build muscle. He gave me 8 pounds of weights in both hands and showed me the exercises I was supposed to do.
“Repeat – he said, ‘That’s all I want you to do. I want you to be tired of lifting those 8 pounds of weight. And I learned my lesson: stay away from the gym, son. If you go to the gym, you’re not building mass, you’re just getting stronger. But a lot of people are getting carried away now.”
The move to Somerset
In his first season with Littleborough, Garner trained with Lancashire. “They were not interested and never bothered me. Then Somerset came calling.
This was the start of a deep connection between Garner and the West Country. At Somerset, Garner took 338 first-class wickets at 18.1 to go with 206 one-day wickets at an absurd 15.2 each, which helped win five one-day trophies. Yet Garner initially only played part-time for Somerset, to fulfill his contract with Littleborough. Terrorizing Central Lancashire League batsmen, Garner took 334 wickets at 9.3 in three seasons.
“I would not break the contract. I played midweek games for Somerset, weekend games for Littleborough. He still returns regularly to both places to catch up with old friends and sometimes watches live broadcasts of Somerset matches from his home in Barbados.
Even though he became one of the most feared fast bowlers in history, Garner’s house remained the same. Rather than move somewhere fancier, he chose to renovate the house.
“My family lived in Canada and the United States, and when they came home, the house couldn’t accommodate all of us. So I changed it in 1982. I raised the roof, knocked down some walls and put another building on top. I never moved away from it. I’m still here!
“I have no complaints about cricket or my life”
Garner has lived with his wife of 38 years; her daughter and children are only minutes away. Having retired from administrative positions in Barbadian cricket, Garner is now simply ‘Grandpa Joel’.
“I have always lived in the same place. It’s the best place in the world – it’s peaceful, everything works, no worries, no problems. I still have all the friends I grew up with.
It has become a trope for West Indian legends to express their sadness over the team’s current plight. But Garner’s perspective is refreshing.
“I think we need to do a better job of selling cricket to parents and local people. We went through a period where we had a lot of bad publicity, a lot of bad press. According to Garner, the Barbados Cricket Association and Cricket West Indies “need to mend some barriers and get people to trust them again.”
“Now there is nothing wrong with what is happening. This is the perception of what is wrong because we are still producing young cricketers. What we need to do is encourage these young cricketers to stay. If people don’t feel like they have to trust you, you’ll always have this problem.
For anyone who has visited the Caribbean in recent years, Garner’s observation is powerful. Of course, gaming in the region has problems – a lack of infrastructure and the financial chasm that has opened up with the wealthier nations.
Yet the love for cricket in countries like Barbados remains deep. Whatever the myth that young people are interested in American sport, the emergence of short-format franchise leagues means a career in professional cricket has never been more attractive to children in the Caribbean.
Garner’s cocktail of gifts would have made him an Indian Premier League millionaire today. Yet, looking out at Oistins Fish Market, as he prepares to return home to his wife and grandchildren, Garner has nothing but thanks. He smiles. “I have no complaints – no complaints about cricket or my life.”