Cricket Trivia: The story of Leslie Hylton, a former West Indian bowler, holds the distinction of being the only Test cricketer to face hanging. The Jamaican cricketer who represented the West Indies from 1934–1939 was hanged for murdering his wife in 1955.
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#LeslieHylton #CricketTrivia #westindiescricket
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SportsTranscript
00:00Today, a story of a cricketer came out of the pages of the history of cricket
00:04On whom the accusation of murder had been placed
00:07And then, that cricketer was hanged
00:17The accusation of murder has been filed on many cricketers
00:20Even a formal case has been filed on them in the court
00:23In this list, there is Khalid Latif, who was accused of inciting a murder of a Dutch MP
00:27Navjot Singh Sidhu was also accused of inciting a road rage in 1988
00:33And there is also Montek Druid, who was known as a criminal cricketer
00:38So, all these cricketers were accused of murder
00:41But there is one cricketer, on whom the accusation of murder has been proved in the court
00:47And he is the only test cricketer, whose death was due to being hanged
00:52This cricketer was the fast bowler of West Indies, Leslie Hilton
00:56Who played 6 test matches for West Indies from 1934 to 1939
01:01And also took 16 wickets
01:03Leslie Hilton was accused of the murder of his wife
01:08This accusation was also proved in the court and he was sentenced to death
01:13And after that, in 1955, Leslie Hilton was also hanged in Kingston
01:18But what was the whole story? What happened?
01:22Leslie Hilton was born in a poor family on 29th March, 1905
01:26His parents died when he was a child, his elder sister raised him
01:29He dropped out of school and worked at a tailor shop when he was young
01:33When he grew up, he became a worker at a dock
01:35But he was crazy about playing cricket
01:38His luck shined and finally, he was selected as an all-rounder in the team of Jamaica
01:44From 1926 to 1939, Leslie Hilton played a total of 40 first-class matches
01:50In first-class cricket, Leslie Hilton's performance was great
01:54And in 1935, when the West Indies team was losing against England
01:59Leslie Hilton also got his first chance in test cricket as a fast bowler
02:05After this, he stopped playing the West Indies test and he was ignored
02:09After 4 years, in 1939, he came back to the test team
02:13And again went to play against England as a fast bowler
02:18But by that time, he was a better fast bowler
02:23After coming back, Leslie Hilton retired
02:26According to West Indies Cricket, he was capable of playing more than 6 tests
02:32He was a good player
02:33Now comes the second part of the story
02:36Leslie Hilton's personal life
02:38Leslie fell in love with the daughter of Jamaica's police inspector, Lorraine Rose
02:44She was from a rich family
02:46In 1942, they got married and had a son
02:50But their relationship was bad from the beginning
02:53His wife was a fashion designer and often went to New York for work
02:58That's why in 1951, Leslie Hilton shifted to Lorraine's mother's house to take care of the child
03:05So that she could take care of the child
03:07Then in 1954, Hilton got a letter from New York
03:10In which there was a mention of his wife's relationship with a man named Roy Francis
03:14And this issue became the biggest reason for a rift in their relationship
03:19Although Leslie's wife apologized for her affair
03:23But Leslie's doubt was never cleared
03:25Finally, Leslie received a love letter
03:28With this letter, there was a big fight between the two
03:32And this fight got so big
03:34That Leslie took out his revolver and shot his wife 7 times
03:39After this, Leslie himself called the police and gave information about this incident
03:43In October 1954, a case started in the court
03:46His captain Vivian Blake was on the team of Jamaica
03:49And he became his lawyer
03:51Along with him was the member of the West Indies Cricket Board, Noel Nethersole
03:55But because of not being a professional lawyer
03:58Leslie Hilton's case proved very weak in the court from day one
04:03His lawyers could not even prove
04:06That this fight started with the love letter
04:09And Leslie Hilton shot his wife in anger
04:14If this had been proved, he might not have been sentenced to death
04:18On October 20, 1954, the jury found him guilty of murder
04:24And sentenced him to death
04:26Later, the Supreme Court of Jamaica also issued an appeal against this decision
04:31On May 17, 1955, Leslie was hanged outside the St. Catharine District Jail
04:38And buried in the jail complex
04:40It is believed that Leslie Hilton defamed cricket
04:44Even in 1956, when Wisden published the news of his death
04:49It did not mention how he died
04:53Leslie's death was discussed more outside cricket than in cricket
04:57The legal community considered it unfair
04:59Two years after his death, in Jamaica
05:02A separate law was passed on the crime of incitement
05:05So that it could be decided that the crime was not intentional
05:09The only test cricketer in the world who was hanged
05:13Is rarely mentioned in the West Indies Cricket
05:17Because it is such a record
05:19That no cricketer or human being should compare
05:29You