It was a measure of how little the legendary West Indian players earned in 1960 that Sir Wes managed to negotiate Accrington up to £1,000 (£21,000 in today’s money) from the £500 that committee member Alan Doherty first offered him.
The player’s bargaining position was enhanced by the 46 wickets he took in eight Test matches on West Indies tour of India and Pakistan in 1958-59. He’d earn a £100 bonus at most for a summer’s Test achievements.
When he has finished out in the middle, chuckling at the soft turf which caused his right foot to ‘slip and slide over the crease’ and created no-ball trouble in the summer of 1960, some of his old teammates have arrived at the club. These proud and undemonstrative Lancastrian men formally extend a hand of welcome but he dispenses with all that. ‘Give us a hug man,’ he tells Russ Cuddihy.