The Caribbean Legends

[express bowling]

These guys were not only great cricketers ( and perhaps the best natural test team ever )  but played the game with a lot of passion and humility.

 

It is a privilege to listen to the likes to Richards, Bishop and Dujon speak about cricket.

 

Listening to the great Richards and Dujon brings  back a lot of memories of watching  test matches in the 1984, 1988 and 1989,  in test series played between the 2 countries.  WI were a different team then.  

 

Richards, in particular, is so fantastic even now.  he enjoys his cricket.....appreciates Kohli. Rahul and Shami  like the true cricket fan that he is. Says that he is always optimistic about WI cricket and is quick to defend Gabriel and Cummins.

 

Bishop and Dujon are very good too but I greatly dislike Holding, who has become an English spokesperson....always unnecessarily spewing hate  about the domination of  India in the cricketing fraternity.

 

Listening to Richards talk about the late Malcolm Marshall was so nostalgic. He said that Marshall is the best WI fast bowler he has seen. There were many great fast bowlers of the '70s and '80s who did not like to tour the sub-continent because they thought it to be hard work but Marshall found a way to succeed here.  Incidentally, Marshall has the best bowling average ever in the history of test cricket and Garner comes very close.  Marshall was the shortest of their fast bowlers but was the most complete pacer ever.

 

Richards was very appreciative of " Big Bird " Garner too, who had come to to the stadium. He too has an extremely low bowling average of 20.x  and what a bowler he was.

 

My  heartfelt appreciation to the the best natural cricket team ever and the players who contributed to their success and added  to the romance of cricket.

  

 

 

 

[Ankit_sharma03]

I was looking at few documentries and features on sobers, marshall, richards......they were champion stuff

There on field rivalries, gr8 innings, battles and all made me feel unlucky not to have witnessed the aura

[zen]

The mid 70s- mid 80s WI is probably my fav cricket team. I also usually have a lot of WI players from this era in my ATG 11

[maniac]

Agree.......They just don't care about test cricket or ODI for the matter of fact anymore

 

In the 70's and 80's,it was a matter of pride and respect which was in the incentive which made them the most entertaining as well as successful team.

 

These days the incentive seems to be purely money.

 

Even then look at the motivated and driven cricketers in their T20 team,they are entertaining,successful,fearless and dangerous in the format almost reflective of their past era.

 

Unfortunately WI is not a country and there seems to be that motivation and incentive that is lacking which drives most sports teams/athletes.

 

Watch the documentary Fire in Babylon.....the constant racism and the poor treatment they were getting,motivated and united a bunch of talented cricketers to show what they have got and they ran through teams.

 

Look how they perform in T20 tournaments-vast difference in the team outlook,they know that if they can make an impact,they can make a lot of money in leagues around the world . Darren Bravo who is their mainstay in ODI and Tests is not the first name you think of when you think of the current WI squad,it is infact his brother Dwayne and Chris Gayle.

 

A lot of fault lies within the WICB as well but then again the players themselves don't seem to take pride in the WI logo.

 

I have no sympathies to how bad they have become in tests and ODI's and at the same time I don't blame them that their priorities and motivation lies elsewhere.

[express bowling]

I really really appreciate and enjoy the Caribbean brand of cricket of the '80s and hope that the WI can unearth some good cricketers in the near future.   It would be a thing of great joy to the true cricket fan.

 

WI winning the U19 WC and the T20 WC  will hopefully enthuse them somewhat.

 

[maniac]

8 minutes ago, Ankit_sharma03 said:

I was looking at few documentries and features on sobers, marshall, richards......they were champion stuff

There on field rivalries, gr8 innings, battles and all made me feel unlucky not to have witnessed the aura

Watch Fire in Babylon...one of the best documentaries on WI cricket

[Ankit_sharma03]

1 minute ago, maniac said:

Watch Fire in Babylon...one of the best documentaries on WI cricket

Seen it many many times, love it

[Ankit_sharma03]

The best Odi knocks of All time

Wi are 166/9 and Viv goes on to smash 189 batting with number 11 holding. 

 

 

 

[Ankit_sharma03]

Battle of legends- Lilee vs sobers. 

Where are these great battles now, something test cricket really misses

 

 

[maniac]

My Favorite WI cricketer though is from the 90's-the one and only Brian Lara......As good and brutal as Viv was,Lara is the greatest WI cricketer of all time......maybe has a lot to do with growing up in the 90's watching Lara bat.

 

My Top 10 of best WI cricketers of all time

Lara

Sobers

Viv

Marshall

Lloyd

Ambrose

Holding

Chanderpaul

Walsh

Haynes

Honble mentions-Garner,Greenidge,Richardson

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ankit_sharma03]

9 minutes ago, maniac said:

My Favorite WI cricketer though is from the 90's-the one and only Brian Lara......As good and brutal as Viv was,Lara is the greatest WI cricketer of all time......maybe has a lot to do with growing up in the 90's watching Lara bat.

 

My Top 10 of best WI cricketers of all time

Lara

Sobers

Viv

Marshall

Lloyd

Ambrose

Holding

Chanderpaul

Walsh

Haynes

Honble mentions-Garner,Greenidge,Richardson

Growing up if there was nightmare his name was chanderpaul, Lara i felt never took indian bowling as great challenge so was always on n off.

But yes Lara would be my fav to, watching him bat was amazing. The guy was a SANKI. Recently even warne said if its the last day of test n u need 400 runs to get there was only one guy who could do it that was lara. 

 

I think when it comes to Test matches ill take Lara over tendulkar every day.

 

I came across Viv through youtube videos, become a fan of his and his swag. Watching Richards i felt he was one of the most Talented n gifted batsman.

Sobers is another cricketers who was complete cricketer and would have been god had he played today. There wasnt a thing that sobers couldnt do

Edited August 2, 2016 by Ankit_sharma03

[Adi_91]

My dad keeps saying that I missed the best era of cricket played and the cricket today may catch a lot of eyeballs for big hitting. But, the real essence of cricket was in the West Indies's flair and flamboyance with both the bat and the ball. 

 

And the fact that India beat the West Indies first to win the World Cup makes him nostalgic. It is like India beating Australia when Australia when they were at their peak say in early 2000. Can imagine how big a pleasure it is to beat that West Indies team.

[Nova]

One bowler from the past, who is relatively unknown is Pattrick Patterson. Does anyone remember him? At one point he was the fastest Windies bowler considered as a replacement for the likes of Andy Roberts and Holding. He took four wickets in the first innings, of his debut test match (1986), and three in the second innings in one of the fastest bowling spells in test history. Graham Gooch was amazed by his pace and hostility and said later that this was the only time he feared for his well being on a cricket pitch.

 

"Never felt it more likely that I would see someone killed on the pitch". - The Times'

"Patrick Patterson is unquestionably the fastest bowler I ever kept wicket to," What stands out most was the degree to which he was able to get the ball to leave the bat at such pace. This was something I had never seen before - hooping outswingers at well near 100mph!" - Dujon.

 

Patterson took 93 wickets in 28 tests, but was dropped after 1992, and then he just disappeared.

 

 

[Ankit_sharma03]

One of the greatest test series by the fading west indian side, the genius of Lara

 

 

[Ankit_sharma03]

The dude.........Such a Charismatic personality