Barbados cricket and cricketers

[AKane]

"Barbados are mighty proud of their cricket"

 

The WI were largely driven by tiny Barbados in their cricket.

 

Barbados - current population 281000   (1/18th of NZ).

 

Here is a list of players from Barbados - I have taken the prominent ones by position. Besides spin, they can rival any cricketing nation.

 

Openers - Conrad Hunte, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes

MO - Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes, Clyde Walcott(wk),  Seymour Nurse

Allrounders - Garry Sobers, Denis Atkinson, Keith Boyce, John Goddard

Bowlers - Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Wes Hall, Charlie Griffith, Manny Martindale, Wayne Daniel 

 

Man - I did not realize so many of their players were from Barbados. Pretty good economy too with per capita income around US $20000.

[Muloghonto]

Put it this way, the only non barbardians in an all-time WI XI are Lara, Viv, Dujon, Ambrose, Gibbs & Holding. so 5 of 11 are barbadians anyways. 

 

[Vijy]

18 hours ago, Muloghonto said:

Put it this way, the only non barbardians in an all-time WI XI are Lara, Viv, Dujon, Ambrose, Gibbs & Holding. so 5 of 11 are barbadians anyways. 

 

Missed seeing three W's by about a decade, but I suspect Weekes and Walcott could outdo Lara. I would not choose any spinner since Gibbs (who I saw) was a chiefly defensive bowler. 4 pacers + sobers + richards is enough. overall, I suspect Barbados would contribute 6-7 out of XI

[Muloghonto]

18 minutes ago, Vijy said:

Missed seeing three W's by about a decade, but I suspect Weekes and Walcott could outdo Lara. I would not choose any spinner since Gibbs (who I saw) was a chiefly defensive bowler. 4 pacers + sobers + richards is enough. overall, I suspect Barbados would contribute 6-7 out of XI

I doubt Sobers would be enough for a spinner, given that there is talk amongst the oldies that his bowling average as a spinner was nearly 40,while his bowling average as a seam bowler was in the high 20s. 
Defensive bowler or not, he was the most successful spinner at one point in history, holding the record for most wickets in tests and his average isnt too shabby either. True, he is no Warne-Murali category spinner, but IMO, he'd be essential as the only quality spinner WI's ever had. 

 

I am a big fan of Lara as he was inconsistent but also the most destructive batsman on his day i've ever seen. He's definitely faced more quality bowlers than the 3Ws have.

 

[AKane]

Walcott could keep wickets and will definitely outdo Dujon as a wk/batsman with his batting average of Tests and FC of 56.xx

[Muloghonto]

15 hours ago, AKane said:

Walcott could keep wickets and will definitely outdo Dujon as a wk/batsman with his batting average of Tests and FC of 56.xx

There are very few keepers ever who can out-do Dujon for keeping vs pace in the entire history of cricket. Dujon's weakness was keeping to spinners on crumbling pitches. Which is not a problem in a WI alltime XI as their spinner stocks are quite weak.

 

[Vijy]

22 hours ago, AKane said:

Walcott could keep wickets and will definitely outdo Dujon as a wk/batsman with his batting average of Tests and FC of 56.xx

or play both sobers and walcott, and have sobers keep most of the time, and walcott for the rest. The maestro (sobers) was such a freak that he could probably do even keeping with ease. I am half-joking, nut also half-serious here

[Vijy]

On 4/11/2024 at 6:04 PM, Muloghonto said:

I doubt Sobers would be enough for a spinner, given that there is talk amongst the oldies that his bowling average as a spinner was nearly 40,while his bowling average as a seam bowler was in the high 20s. 
Defensive bowler or not, he was the most successful spinner at one point in history, holding the record for most wickets in tests and his average isnt too shabby either. True, he is no Warne-Murali category spinner, but IMO, he'd be essential as the only quality spinner WI's ever had. 

 

I am a big fan of Lara as he was inconsistent but also the most destructive batsman on his day i've ever seen. He's definitely faced more quality bowlers than the 3Ws have.

 

I am a big fan of lara too, but the two w's speak for themselves as well. WI middle order would surely have richards, sobers, and headley. only 1 spot remaining, or 2 if walcott keeps.

[Muloghonto]

1 hour ago, Vijy said:

I am a big fan of lara too, but the two w's speak for themselves as well. WI middle order would surely have richards, sobers, and headley. only 1 spot remaining, or 2 if walcott keeps.

Headley sits out for me. Lara gets in ahead of Viv for me in tests. 

 

[Vijy]

9 hours ago, Muloghonto said:

Headley sits out for me. Lara gets in ahead of Viv for me in tests. 

 

headley was probably the GOAT WI bat. I know none of us saw him bat, but there are plenty of reliable commentators who saw him play, who saw three W's & sobers play, and who saw Viv and Lara play. no WI team would lack headley. It is not much different than dropping bradman or graeme pollock.

 

headley played a few tests after the war when he was no longer at his peak (and didn't have a strong team as bradman did, to help with not-outs). before the War, he was likely the 2nd greatest batter of all time, given the pitches he played on. even a 70 mph trundler would be deadly on those pitches.

 

Since I have had my 2 cents worth to say, I'll let you have the last word in the discussion.

[AKane]

People on WI cricket boards have a healthy respect for Headley. A very very good FC average of 69 odd too.

 

I mean an English all time team should have SF Barnes as a bowler - averaged 16 odd for 189 test wickets and 17 odd for 700+ FC wickets. Likewise for Headley.

Edited April 13 by AKane

[BacktoCricaddict]

And damn ... I thought I was old. Great wisdom to be had.

[BacktoCricaddict]

On 4/10/2024 at 11:31 PM, Muloghonto said:

 so 5 of 11 are barbadians anyways. 

 

And Malcolm Marshall is the GOAT among them. What a tragic end :-((.