Career
He was a hard-hitting middle-order batsman and a right-arm bowler who, at his peak, was genuinely fast. In addition, he developed a pioneering slower ball and was the first bowler to use it regularly in one-day cricket. A true all-rounder, Stephenson came to prominence first playing for the West Indies Young Cricketers team that toured England in 1978.
Then, in less than eight months from the end of October 1981, he made his first-class debut, first in Australia, playing for Tasmania, then for his native Barbados, and finally for Gloucestershire in England.
But the debut that was to a large extent to define Stephenson"s career was his one the following winter, 1982-1983, on a fourth continent. He joined the rebel West Indies XI, led by Lawrence Rowe and Alvin Kallicharran, that toured South Africa, and played in so-called "Test" matches and "One Day Internationals" against the South African national cricket team that had been barred from world cricket because of apartheid.
The rebel West Indian cricketers were themselves then barred from all levels of West Indies cricket for life, until the ban was lifted in 1989, and Stephenson never played true Test cricket. He is widely regarded as the greatest cricketer never to have played for the West Indies.
In fact, unlike most of the West Indian rebels, Stephenson did return to cricket in the West Indies, playing for Barbados in the 1989-1990 Red Stripe Cup series.
But most of his career was spent playing for English county teams and for Free State in South Africa. Stephenson"s first season for Nottinghamshire in 1988 was sensational. Stephenson"s feat was all the more remarkable in that he bought up the run-scoring part of the double by scoring centuries in each innings of Nott"s final match of the season against Yorkshire - and also took 11 wickets in the game.
Despite this truly outstanding all round performance, N ottinghamshire lost the match by 127 runs.
In 1994, he again took the leading all-rounder award with more than 750 runs and 67 wickets. Stephenson retired from English county cricket after 1995, and from South African domestic cricket after the 1996-1997 season.
In addition to his cricketing career, Stephenson, a keen golfer, is also credited with one of only two birdies on the Extreme 19th in South Africa.