Jeff Dujon
November 16, 2007
He was a revelation at a time when fielding was at the lower ebb of the priority list and a wicket keeper’s job was considered genuinely thankless. Peter Jeffrey Leroy Dujon was the wicket keeper of the West Indian team in its glory years. He was the crucial link in the terrific combination and the safety house for a bunch of dynamites that would take world sport by a storm.
Born on May 28, 1956, he was introduced to cricket when he was just four years old when he would go with his father to the Kingston Club during the weekends. During the tea break he would try his hand with the willow and the gloves. He came into national reckoning after a series of high level high school and first class performance. The Jamaican lad made his first class debut in 1974 and went on to play more than 200 test matches for Jamaica and West Indies. With a batting prowess to compliment his athletic wicket keeping skills, he was indispensable for the team. In his 81 match test career, he took 267 catches behind the stumps and his athletic ability was a blessing for the fearsome pace battery which could produce some astonishing bouncers and needed a nippy, high reflex wicketkeeper to maintain the sanity in the scheme of things. He was a tireless soldier who served his country well. In his first class career also, he had an excellent track record and has scored more than 10000 first class runs and a number of behind the stump dismissals.
His greatest contributions were in the one day format of the game and he was a member of the World Cup winning West Indian team. One of the most downloaded images from the 1983 world cup is that of Jeff Dujon banging the ground with his fist after he was clean bowled by Mohinder Amarnath in the finals. He had been involved in a crucial partnership with Malcolm Marshall when West Indies were 76-6 and he stayed at the crease till the score was 119. His dismissal was definitely the turning point of the game and India eventually went on to win the match and the cup. In 169 one day games, he took 183 catches and made 21 stumpings. He also scored 1945 runs with six half centuries at an average of 23.15 with a top score of 82*. His batting performance in the test matches was even more impressive where he score 3322 runs at an average of 31, including 5 hundreds and 16 fifties. At that time, he held the records for both, highest career runs and the maximum hundreds by a wicket keeper making him unarguably, the best wicket keeper in the world in the 80s. His top score of 139 was an innings of exemplary grit.
Dujon was conferred with the recognition of one of the five cricketers of the year 1989 by Wisden, a proud achievement no doubt. He retired in 1992 after a slump in form as age caught up with him. Jeff Dujon is always a part of West Indian cricket’s glorious folklore. He never allowed himself to be bobbed down by the enormous talent that surrounded him and managed to gain the love and respect of all his teammates and countrymen. He also played in the World Series cricket and attributed a large part of his cricketing acumen to the experience there. A large number of wicket keepers look upto his achievements and try to learn more from his natural athletic style. He has inspired many and has firmly etched his name amongst the cricketing greats of all time.
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