Starting off a career on a high before fading out over the course of time is not uncommon. It had happened to several batsmen, the most significant of them being Neil Harvey. Few, however, have met with this fate as spectacularly as Jimmy Adams.

Adams averaged 86.40 after 14 Tests. To provide perspective, Labuschagne averages 63.43 after 14 Tests.

Unfortunately, he managed only 29.58 in his next 40 Tests, which brought his career average down to 41.26. Again, for perspective, Mark Waugh averaged 41.81.

But he bowled ("every time I take an international wicket, I'm surprised"), kept wickets, and led West Indies. He was a hard-nosed, gutsy cricketer whose pads Indian fans will remember forever. In Antigua in 2000, he led and guided West Indies to a 1-wicket win in one of the greatest Tests of all time.

My favourite Adams anecdote is of an injury he sustained en route the South Africa tour of 1998-99. West Indies were routed 0-5 in a series where player spirits were low and injuries aplenty. Walsh twisted an ankle; Ambrose needed to have a toenail removed; Hooper had a groin problem; Dillon and Murray went down with food poisoning; and Ramnarine developed a shoulder niggle.

However, nothing compares to the injury Adams sustained en route South Africa. He was travelling business class, where he picked up a plastic spoon (the kind they used to provide in aircrafts till recently, maybe they still do) and was trying to cut a bread roll open.

He ended up slicing a tendon (two tendons, according to another source) of the little finger of his left hand and was ruled out of the entire Test series.

This has to be one of the most bizarre injuries to have happened to a Test captain.

Jimmy Adams was born on Jan 9, 1968