Карл Хупер: Ұлыбритания және Батыс Индия крикетінің жұлдызы

Guyanese cricketer
the English footballer

Carl Llewelyn Hooper (born 15 December 1966) is a former Guyanese cricketer who captained the West Indies in Tests and ODIs. An all rounder, he was a right handed batsman and off spin bowler, who came to prominence in the late 1980s in a side that included such players as Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Malcolm Marshall and Courtney Walsh and represented the West Indies over a 16 year international career.

Hooper first represented the West Indies at youth level and eventually became a regular for Guyana in senior regional tournaments. He later captained Guyana to triumphantly claim three regional List A titles in 1996, 1999 and 2002. Hooper went on to make his Test debut against India in 1987, scoring his maiden century in only his second test of that tour. During the West Indies' 1991 tour of England, Hooper notched 111 with 14 fours and a six, at Lord's. As well he starred as the overall topscorer with 290 runs, in the 1995 home ODI series against Australia, which the Windies won by a 4 1 margin. He was later named man of the match, scoring 81 and picking up 5 for 26 in the drawn second test of Sri Lanka's 1997 tour of the Windies, played at the Arnos Vale Stadium in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. As well he was named player of the series for the 1997 98 Singer Akai Champions Trophy, where the Windies were defeated by England in the tournament's final. During 1992 he joined English county cricket side Kent. Hooper went on to win the batting award, as top scorer with 773 runs, of the 1994 AXA Equity & Law League. His highest score for the club, 236 not out, came against Glamorgan at Canterbury. With his best bowling figures for Kent, 7 for 93, coming in 1998 against Surrey at The Oval. He later won the 1998 Walter Lawrence Trophy, which he shared with Ali Brown. Hooper eventually spent six years at the English side and was later described by Jo Harman of Wisden as Kent's greatest overseas player of all time. During 2003 Hooper joined Lancashire. During his first season with that side he became only the second player to have scored a century against all 18 county cricket teams. During that season he also scored over 1,100 runs for Lancashire in the County Cricket Championship.

Hooper first announced his retirement three weeks before the 1999 Cricket World Cup but made a surprising comeback in 2001 as West Indies captain. He captained the side in 22 Tests, leading the Windies to a tight victory in the 2001–02 home series against India. He scored 233 not out, his highest innings in Test match cricket, during the first match of that said test series played in Bourda, Guyana. His record as a batsman also improved with the captaincy. As he averaged 45.97 as captain compared to 36.46 in his Test career as a whole. However, other Test results, especially away from home, were less impressive. He also steered the Windies to win the 2001 Zimbabwe Coca Cola Cup, defeating India in the tournament's final. During 2002, with Hooper at the helm, West Indies won a home ODI series against New Zealand along with an away ODI series against India. He then captained the Windies at the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Although the Caribbean side failed to progress to the tournament's second round, according to Rob Smyth, "Hooper did very little wrong apart from lose the odd toss and fail to control the weather". Despite losing the captaincy, Hooper was retained in the side for an upcoming Test and ODI series at home against Australia. He however pulled away to again retire from international cricket as he wanted a youngster in the team instead of him. Hooper holds the accolade of being the first cricketer in the world to have scored 5,000 runs, taken 100 wickets, held 100 catches and received 100 caps in both ODIs and Tests, a feat only matched since by Jacques Kallis. Hooper is also the Windies' fifth highest spinning wicket taker, with 114 scalps in Test Matches. Along with that he's the Windies' fourth highest all time wicket taker, with 193 scalps, in One Day Internationals.

Since the late 1990s while still playing for West Indies, Hooper has lived, with wife Constance in Adelaide South Australia. He invested in various businesses in Australia and overseas. He went on to complete a level 3 coaching accreditation with Cricket Australia in 2010. Hooper has been involved with the SACA since 2010 to date, intermittently. As well as coaching overseas in India, Dubai and West Indies. He has also done various commentary gigs on radio and television. During May 2011 Hooper was appointed as the batting coach of the Sagicor High Performance Centre located at the University of the West Indies' Cave Hill Campus. At the time he disclosed "The amount of talent I am seeing here (at the Sagicor HPC) has surprised me. I was away [from West Indies] for a while and you would see the game on television, but now that you get close and actually see the guys playing it is clear there is still a lot of talent around,". Hooper also opined that "Having an 'academy' is a great thing for West Indies cricket. The good thing about it is that you have your best young players assembled together and they get to work together as a team. The efforts and emphasis, as is being done, have to be placed on 'academies' at the developmental levels, if we are to see an improvement in the game." During 2014 he was appointed coach of CPL outfit Antigua Hawksbills. Hooper later joined up in January 2015, with the Guyana Amazon Warriors, as the CPL side's new head coach.