Episode 16 – Constantine the Great

The latest episode of A Flash Outside The Off Stump tells the story of Learie Constantine from his childhood on a cocoa plantation in 1900s Maraval to his final test match appearance in August 1939. Constantine’s career had taken him from the racially charged atmosphere of Trinidadian club cricket to a professional contract in the Lancashire mill town of Nelson. Despite playing comparatively little first class cricket, Learie became the highest paid sportsman in Britain and his innovative batting and bowling style paved the way, not only for a generation of Caribbean cricketers in England, but the eventual introduction of limited overs cricket at county and eventually international level.