Patrick Patterson

Balfour Patrick Patterson (born 15 September 1961) is a former fast bowler for the West Indies cricket team in the mid-1980s to early 1990s. He is remarkable in that, in an era when the West Indies dominated world cricket through strength of fast bowling, and produced a galaxy of fast bowling stars, he is frequently acknowledged as the fastest of those that played. The West Indies wicket keeper Jeff Dujon, who kept wicket to all of them, stated that Patterson was the quickest he had kept wickets to.

Early life Born in Portland, Jamaica to Maurice and Emelda, Patterson attended Happy Grove High School and Wolmer's School, receiving his Jamaica School Certificate.

Patterson's father and grandfather played parish level cricket in Jamaica In a Test Match in Melbourne, 1988–89, during Christmas, just before second last day's play, Steve Waugh decided to bounce Patterson. At the end of the day's play, Patterson stormed into the Australian dressing room and threatened to kill all the opposition batsmen on the pitch on the fifth and final day of play. Australia were then dismissed for 114 chasing 400. Patterson finished with five wickets in the innings and nine wickets for the match.

He was dropped for disciplinary reasons after the 1992/93 tour of Australia, the last time the West Indies won a series in Australia. Patterson's career strike rate of 51.9 is amongst the best of all time, although his 93 Test wickets came at a slightly high average of 30.9 owing to his attacking nature and subsequent field settings, which always provided opportunity for runs as well as wickets.

Post-retirement In 2016, Andrew Miller wrote of Patterson, "he utter anonymity of his post-cricket life merely adds to the legend. No one seems entirely sure what has become of him, lost back to the streets from whence he came." In 2017, after a number of years of trying to track him down, Indian journalist Bharat Sundaresan found Patterson in Kingston, Jamaica, where he has lived since he finished playing. Mental health issues have subdued him and separated him from his family, though lucid memories of his cricketing career remain.