Joe Small

Who was Joe Small?

Joseph A. "Joe" Small was a West Indian cricketer who played in West Indies' first Test in their inaugural Test tour of England. He scored the first half century for a West Indies player in Test cricket and played two further Test matches in his career. An all-rounder, he played domestic cricket for Trinidad between 1909 and 1932.

Small first played cricket in Trinidad for a club of low social status. After establishing himself in the Trinidad team, he soon made a name for himself as a batsman and was one of the few black batsmen in the West Indies team at the time. For Trinidad, he was one of the cricketers instrumental in breaking the dominance of the Barbados cricket team in the Inter-Colonial Tournament. He first played for West Indies in 1912–13 and, after the First World War, was chosen to tour England twice. He was moderately successful on the 1923 tour, but was less effective in 1928. Small played in the middle of the batting order; he bowled either medium-fast or off breaks. He died in 1958.