Were it not for a delay in the arrival of his papers from Panama, George Headley would have been a dentist in the USA rather than one of cricket’s greatest batsmen. The West Indian legend was born in Colón and a period of unemployment in Jamaica prompted him to begin the process of seeking a career elsewhere.

The delay, however, allowed Headley time to make his first-class debut for Jamaica against the visiting Lord Tennyson’s XI from England in February 1928. These were his scores in the three first-class games in the series: 16, 71, 211, 40, and 71. The rest, as they say, is history.

Yet, consider what might have occurred had his documents arrived in time and he migrated to America. There would’ve been a missing chapter in West Indies and world cricket. The man dubbed Atlas for carrying West Indies’ batting on his slender shoulders would have been lost to the great game.

We would not have known this, of course, “History does not divulge its alternatives,” as the Late Mutty Perkins was fond of saying. But it is undeniable that Headley added much to the story of cricket. The game would’ve been much poorer for his absence.

Headley’s tale brings to the fore the role that happenstance plays in life. In the song Turn A Different Corner, George Michael laments a romantic union gone wrong and suggests that it might have been better had circumstances conspired to prevent their first meeting: “Take me back in time maybe I can forget, turn a different corner and we never would have met.”

Our lives are the result of much planning and deliberate action. But they are the result of chance as well. Luck, good and bad, plays a larger part than we realise or are willing to acknowledge.

“The harder I practice, the luckier I get,” is an oft-repeated maxim of uncertain origin. It is a saying normally used by sportsmen to discount the occurrence or consequence of luck. Athletes like to think that whatever success they’ve had is solely down to them. To admit otherwise is to diminish the value of the skill and endeavour they apply to their craft.

The vicissitudes of luck are a large part of why we watch sports. It fosters uncertainty, which, in turn, enhances interest in the process and the result. On any given day, the underdog can beat the champion. Whenever that occurs, luck is likely to have played some significant part, and sport is the better for it. The speculative shot from 35 yards out, for instance, that takes a cruel deflection and ends up in the roof of the goal and leads to an unlikely win, is due to some measure of good luck on the part of the triumphant team.

Sportsmen progress in the field based on ability and assiduousness. But good fortune often plays a part too. On tour of Pakistan in 1980, Michael Holding, in attempting a return catch during a One-Day International (ODI), reawakened a shoulder injury that had plagued him in the past. He was ruled out of the remaining games, which paved the way for the fearsome Sylvester Clarke.

The Jamaican’s injury cleared up after the series, and he fought hard to regain match fitness during the regional Shell Shield first-class competition. But when the squad for the first ODI against the visiting English team was announced, Holding’s name was absent. With the other fast bowlers getting the job done he became concerned that his place was in jeopardy. It happened, however, that during the Pakistan tour, Clarke had retrieved a block from the boundary marker and hurled it into the crowd in response to being pelted with various objects. A student, hit on the head and badly injured, required life-saving surgery.

Clarke’s case was placed before a disciplinary committee shortly before the first ODI of the English tour. The verdict was a three-match suspension, which meant the Barbadian had to be excised from the squad. Holding was named as replacement, and so resumed his international career at Arnos Vale in St Vincent where he bowled Chris Old and John Emburey to grab the last two wickets of the match, ensuring a two-run win for the West Indies.

“My place on the team was again settled,” Holding reflected in his first memoir, Whispering Death, “but I’m not so sure it would have been had Clarke not thrown that brick in Pakistan.”

With Ben Stokes and Adil Rashid at the crease, England needed 15 from the last over bowled by Trent Boult to win the 2019 50-over World Cup. After two dot balls Stokes clobbered the third delivery for six, leaving his team with nine to get from three.

The fourth, a full toss, was played to deep midwicket and the batsmen set off for two. In diving for the safety of the crease, Stokes’s bat inadvertently redirected the ball to the boundary, meaning England were credited with six runs. England got at least four extra runs, which earned them a tie, which, in turn, resulted in a super over, which England won.

But what if Stokes were run out off the fourth delivery? The ball was headed in the general direction of the stumps and might well have hit had his bat not got in the way. Or what if England hadn’t got those four fortuitous runs when the ball was deflected to the boundary. Batsmen usually don’t run for such deflections, but since it went to the boundary, Stokes had no say in the matter.

Either of those scenarios would likely have resulted in England losing, rather than winning the World Cup. All the praise would have been heaped upon the New Zealanders instead and England would have been left ruing another World Cup failure.

And so a single fortuitous passage of play resulted in England winning the last World Cup. New Zealand may well have been more deserving, but fate favoured England. “Luck”, my father-in-law is fond of saying, “is better than sense.” Maybe he’s right.

Garfield Robinson is a Jamaican living in the US who writes on cricket for a few Indian and English publications. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or garfield.v.robinson@gmail.com.