as a fielder anywhere." In 1934 Neville Cardus described Constantine as a "genius" and the "most original cricketer of recent years". R. C. Robertson-Glasgow called Constantine the most exciting cricketer to watch of all his contemporaries. This was partly because his style of cricket meant that he could alter the course of a match in a short space of time, although he developed his technique to minimise risk. Constantine's batting was based on good eyesight, quick reflexes and natural ability. He used his wrists to adjust the angle of the bat at the last second, allowing him to counter unexpected late movement of the ball. He batted by instinct and, according to Manley, "his every stroke [owed] more to energy than calculation". He was capable of scoring rapidly against any standard of bowling, but rarely survived for long periods because he chose not to defend. His best shots were the cut, pull and hook. Critics believed that Constantine's batting reached its peak once he became an accomplished league cricketer. By setting himself to master the variety of pitch conditions he encountered, and adopting a style of fast-scoring and occasionally unorthodox batting, he became an adaptable and effective batsman in all forms of cricket, improvising where necessary to prevent bowlers getting on top. As a cover-point fielder Constantine was, according to Manley, "athletic, panther-quick, sure handed and with an arm that could rifle the ball into the wicket-keeper's gloves like a bullet even from the deepest boundary". Many critics considered him to be one of the best fielders of all time. As a bowler, Constantine accelerated from a relatively short run into what Manley calls an "explosive" delivery. James believes he reached his best form as a bowler in 1939, using what he had learned in the leagues. By this time his varieties of spin, pace and flight made him effective even when conditions favoured the batsmen. Although Constantine's Test bowling record was modest, this may to some extent reflect the poor standard of fielding in the early West Indies teams, in particular their propensity to drop catches. Manley writes that wherever Constantine played he brought "style and humour: that aggressiveness that is somehow good-natured and which is the distinctively West Indian quality in all sport. Constantine's extrovert exuberance was, of course, more particularly Trinidadian than generally West Indian. Perhaps it is this last characteristic that gave him that special quality