George Headley's Caribbean Form — Selected for First Home Test Series, 1929

Headley was already known in Caribbean cricket as a batsman of unusual concentration and footwork. The MCC's 1929-30 tour, captained by the Honourable Freddie Calthorpe, was the West Indies' first home Test series, played 18 months after their inaugural Test at Lord's.

George Headley had been born in Panama and grew up in Jamaica. By 1929 his Caribbean batting reputation was already such that the MCC tour of 1929-30 chose him for the West Indies' first home Test series. He was 20 years old at the start of the series.

The first Test at Bridgetown was drawn. Headley made 21 in the first innings and 176 in the second — his first Test innings of substance — to give the West Indies a fighting position in only their fourth Test as a nation. The second Test at Port-of-Spain was lost; the third Test at Georgetown was won by the West Indies by 289 runs — their first ever Test win — with Headley making 114 and 112, the second instance of twin hundreds in a Test by a West Indian (and his own first such instance). The fourth Test at Kingston, played in early April 1930, produced his 223 — at the time the highest score by a West Indian in a Test.

Headley scored 703 runs in the four-Test series at 87.87 — equivalent to Hammond's 1928-29 average. He went on to play 22 Tests over a 25-year career and average 60.83, second only to Bradman among batsmen with at least 20 Tests for any country at the time of his last Test in 1954.

“When you face an attack as great as that England side, you do not think about averages. You think only about the next ball.”

Headley toured England in 1933 and made 169* at Old Trafford. He scored 270* against England at Kingston in 1935 — the highest score in a Test in the 1930s. By the end of his career he had averaged over 60 in 22 Tests and was the founding figure of West Indian Test batting.