Patrick Patterson's Debut at Sabina Park — February 1986

Holding was rested for the first Test; the Jamaicans persuaded the selectors to debut Patterson on his home ground.

The Sabina Park pitch had been re-laid and was unusually grassy and uneven for the start of the series.

England arrived in the Caribbean for the 1985-86 series braced for the Marshall-Holding-Garner pace barrage but were instead introduced to a new horror. With Holding rested, the Jamaican selectors gave a Test debut to 24-year-old Patrick Patterson on his home Sabina Park ground. The pitch, as Gooch later wrote, had grass and ridges and the ball was leaping past chins from the opening over. Patterson, all bow-legged action and a long, hostile run-up, hit Mike Gatting's helmet grille so hard in the warm-up ODIs that it sliced his nose; in the Test he took 4 for 30 in the first innings and 3 for 44 in the second to win the Player of the Match award. Gooch later said Patterson was 'much quicker than Marshall' and that Sabina Park was 'the only time in my career I genuinely feared injury'. Patterson played only 28 Tests but for two years in the late 1980s was as feared as anyone in the world. He took 93 Test wickets and effectively disappeared from cricket after 1992, retreating to Jamaica.

“He was much quicker than Marshall.”

“It was the only time I genuinely feared for my life on a cricket field.”

England lost the series 5-0 — the second Blackwash. Patterson played 28 Tests in total before fading from cricket.