When cricket lovers are asked about the famous duos that have graced the sport, the usual names are reeled off: Wasim and Waqar, Ambrose and Walsh, Hayden and Langer. But for fans of a certain vintage, there is one pairing that perhaps endures above all others: Greenidge and Haynes. Theirs is the most prolific opening partnership Test cricket has ever seen – the two plundered 6482 runs together during a 13-year period until Greenidge’s final Test in 1991.

The first time the pair batted together in Tests was at Trinidad against Australia in 1978. The visitors were rolled out for 90 before Greenidge and Haynes put on 87, the first of 42 stands of 50 or more that the two would put on. Haynes scored 61 that day and followed it up with twin fifties in the next Test in Barbados. That cemented his place in the side but it was not until his sixth match, against New Zealand in Dunedin, that he would reach three figures for the first time.

Haynes’ career was enigmatic in that it was characterised by a series of peaks and troughs. He went nearly three years without a Test hundred between 1980 and 1983, but would conversely go on to score three consecutive tons in 1990, two at home to England and one in Karachi against Pakistan, the latter during his brief spell as captain.

Like many of his compatriots, Haynes graced the English County Championship as well as the international stage. He scored 2036 runs for Middlesex as they marched to the title in 1990 before contributing 793 runs to a second victorious campaign three years later in what would be the county’s last triumph for 23 years.

Upon retirement, Haynes worked as a selector for his native Barbados before taking up a role as a Director of the West Indies Cricket Board. His position as one of West Indies’ all-time greats is secure and it will be some time before his shared record with Greenidge is broken.