Haynes' batting possessed a solid muscularity and all-round nature to it, and while he was capable of destructive innings, he tended - in opening partnerships anyway - towards acting as a counterpoint to Gordon Greenidge's belligerent strokeplay.

He started his Test career with three half-centuries, at home against Australia in 1977-78. Next season he made hundreds in back-to-back Tests on a challenging tour of New Zealand. He made his highest Test score, 184, in his tenth Test, at Lord's, in the course of a double-century stand with Viv Richards.

At his best against pace, like most West Indians, he had the technique and diligence to score 75 and 143 in a game, the latter innings in a total of 256 in a rare West Indies defeat for that era, on a dustbowl in Sydney in 1989.

Though happiness pervaded Haynes' cricket, it was underpinned by a ruthless streak best illustrated by the cynical way in which, on his captaincy debut in 1990, he used delaying tactics to deny England a win in Trinidad.

He held the one-day record for most hundreds (17) till Sachin Tendulkar passed him in 1998.