Joe Small

Joseph A. Small (3 November 1892 – 26 April 1958) was a Trinidadian cricketer who played in West Indies' first Test in their inaugural Test tour of England. He scored the first half century for a West Indies player in Test cricket and played two further Test matches in his career. An all-rounder, he played domestic cricket for Trinidad between 1909 and 1932.

Small first played cricket in Trinidad for a club of low social status. After establishing himself in the Trinidad team, he soon made a name for himself as a batsman and was one of the few black batsmen in the West Indies team at the time. For Trinidad, he was one of the cricketers instrumental in breaking the dominance of the Barbados cricket team in the Inter-Colonial Tournament. He first played for West Indies in 1912–13 and, after the First World War, was chosen to tour England twice. He was moderately successful on the 1923 tour, but was less effective in 1928. Small played in the middle of the batting order; he bowled either medium-fast or off breaks. He died in 1958.

Early career Small was born in Princes Town, Trinidad, in 1892. He first played cricket for a club in Trinidad called Stingo, which included players from the lowest social class. Cricket in Trinidad at the time was divided along racial lines. For cricket clubs on the island, the colour of a player's skin was crucial. Stingo was described by writer and historian C. L. R. James: "They were plebeians: the butcher, the tailor, the candlestick maker, the casual labourer, with a sprinkling of unemployed. Totally black and of no social status whatever." James described Small as a genial presence on the cricket field: "Small talked to everybody and everybody talked to him: Joe radiated good nature and self-satisfaction." Outside of his cricket career, Small worked for the Stores Department of Trinidad Leaseholds oil company.

Small made his first-class debut for Trinidad on 11 November 1909, playing against a team chosen by WC Shepherd. Small scored 13 and 0 in the match and bowled two over without taking a wicket. The following January, Small made his first appearance for Trinidad in the Inter-Colonial Tournament; he scored seven runs in his only innings and took four for 16 in British Guiana's first innings. In the final against Barbados, he took one wicket in the game and scored 17 and 8 in his two innings. Trinidad won the match. Small played for Trinidad against the tourists; he made scores of 25 and 26, and took seven for 49 in the MCC first innings, adding another wicket in the second innings. Although that match was lost by Trinidad, James writes that there was a perception in Trinidad that Small owed his place to his genial nature, but that the selectors did not want any further black batsmen in the side. After taking six wickets in a minor game, Small took five for 93 and scored 71 against Nottinghamshire in his next first-class match. He bowled 53 overs in the game, by far his greatest number on the tour. placing him third in the team's batting averages.

According to C. L. R. James, Small was asked by either Hampshire or Sussex to qualify to play for their team after the tour, as other West Indian cricketers had done after previous tours. However, he refused. According to James, this contrasted with the ambition of others in the team: "Through cricket, steadiness of character and a limited outlook Joe had made a place for himself that was quite satisfactory to him".

Inter-Colonial Tournament winner Small returned to play for Trinidad in the 1924 Inter-Colonial Tournament; he scored 62 in the first match but failed in the final against Barbados. Small was dismissed only twice in five innings and scored 217 runs with a top-score of 81. However, he was less successful than on the 1923 tour. Although several batting records were established by English players in a season that produced good batting conditions, Small's batting average fell and, in common with many of his team-mates, he was generally unsuccessful with the bat. Although he managed a century against Oxford University, he scored only 595 runs at an average of 18.59. He was more successful in bowling; he fulfilled a supporting role with the ball, took 50 wickets at an average of 20.88 and finished third in the team's bowling averages.

West Indies lost every game in the three-Test series. In the first Test, Small took two wickets in England's innings and scored 0 in his first innings. But in the second innings, he scored 52, He also played in the third Test, Trinidad lost to British Guiana in the 1929–30 tournament, and Small did little in the game. An MCC team toured West Indies again that season, and Small played in one of Trinidad's two matches against the touring team. Although he was not successful, he was chosen for the second Test of the four-match series between England and West Indies, played in Trinidad. He took one wicket and scored 20 and 5 in the match. This was his final Test match.

Small only played twice more in first-class cricket. There was no first-class cricket in West Indies during the 1930–31 season, but he played in the Trinidad team which won the 1931–32 Inter-Colonial Tournament. In his final first-class innings, he scored 66 and he took a wicket with his final delivery. He died following a short illness in Pointe-à-Pierre, Trinidad, on 26 April 1958 at the age of 65,#tag:ref|Some sources give Small's place of death as Forest Reserve, Trinidad. His obituary in the Jamaican Daily Gleaner states he died in Pointe-à-Pierre. In The Complete Record of West Indian Test Cricketers, Bridgette Lawrence states: "Joe Small was one of West Indies' pioneering all-rounders in Test cricket. He was a gifted batsman with all the strokes at his command, a medium-pace off-break bowler and a competent slip fielder." The Daily Gleaner gave Small credit, along with other Trinidadian cricketers of the time, for overcoming the dominance of the Barbados team. He also wrote about practising with Small: "International cricketers are not as ordinary men. There might be only two boys fielding, but if you bowled Joe a half-volley outside the off stump, he hit with all his force, though he would have to wait until the ball came back from 150 yards. Then he would bowl at me for ten minutes."