About Desmond Haynes
Desmond Leo Haynes (born 15 February 1956) is a former Barbadian cricketer and cricket coach who played for the West Indies cricket team between 1978 and 1994. He was a member of the squads which won the 1979 Cricket World Cup and finished as runners-up at the 1983 Cricket World Cup. Haynes favoured a more measured approach to batting and scored 7,487 runs in 116 Test matches at an average of 42.29, his highest Test innings of 184 coming against England in 1980. He is one of the few Test batsmen to have been dismissed handled the ball, falling in this fashion against India on 24 November 1983. He is also one of the few players to have scored a century on an ODI debut. He was rated by Trinidad and Tobago Guardian as "one of the greatest of all time", while the BBC described him as "one of the greatest opening partnerships in history with fellow Barbadian Gordon Greenidge." The cricket almanac Wisden noted his "combination of timing and barely evident power", and named him one of their Cricketers of the Year in 1991. In June 2021, he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame as one of the special inductees to mark the inaugural edition of the ICC World Test Championship final. He first made his name on the international scene with 148 at Antigua in a One-Day International against Australia and until recently Haynes held a number of ODI records, including most runs and most centuries. Haynes had a successful career in English county cricket, playing 95 first-class games for Middlesex, scoring 7071 runs at 49.1 with a best of 255* against Sussex. He was a member of the squads which won the 1979 Cricket World Cup as well as finishing as runners-up at the 1983 Cricket World Cup. He played in the World Cup of 1979, won by the West Indies, and returned to the competition in 1983, 1987 and 1992.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.