Sep 10, 2001 01:25 PM
9363 Views
West Indies had dominated cricketing world most of the period of last century by their dazzling batting , fierce bowling and wizardly fielding. Learie Constantine, Goerge Headley, Sir Frank Worrell, Everton Weeks , Clide Walcot, Rohan Kanhai, Sir Garry Sobers , Lorence Row , Vivian Alexandar Richard, Gordon Grinidge, Desmond Henes , Brian Lara fascinated the cricket world displaying their magnificent batting . Wes Hall, Charly Griffith , Andy Roberts, Maichel Holding, Joel Garner, Colin Croft, Malcom Marshal determined many occasion the fate of match in favour of West Indies. Not only that in many occasion opponents could not cross 100 Run and West Indies got the victory in huge margin.
46 England Port of Spain 1993
71 England Manchester 1976
74 NZ Dunedin 1955-56
75 India Delhi 1987-88
76 Australia Perth 1984-85
77 Pakistan Lahore 1986-87
82 Australia Adelaide 1951-52
89 England Bermiham 1955
90 Australia Port of Spain 1977-78
90 India Kolkata 1983-84
93 England Manchester 1988
94 Australia Port of Spain 1977-78
94 NZ Bridgetown 1984-85
97 India Kingston 1975-76
[ 5 absent hurt }
97 Australia Bridgetown 1983-84
98 India Port of Spain 1961-72
Sir Frank Wore was the first black captain of West Indies and he has got eminent place in international cricket for his sporting attitude. But Clive Loyed is the first captain who blended West Indian flair of the game with tremendous commitment. He understood that his pace battery could win a match.4th test in Kingston(1975-76) 5 Indian batsman did not bat due to injury. They are A.D.Gaekwad, G.R.Viswanath, B.S.Chandra Sekhar, B.Patel, B.S.Bedi . and West Indian Bowlers delivered one after another bouncer from round the wicket. This happened as angry Clive Loyed could not forget Indian victory of Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain (3rd test ,1975-76) after chasing more than 400 run in forth innings. India won that match by six wicket. Sunil Gavaskar scored102 and Viswanath scored 112 run.In that innings Mohinder Amarnath scored 85.
The golden days of Caribbean cricket have gone. Present team is shadow of the past and glorious past has turned to myth. It is difficult to control sitting in Antigua. Now West Indian fielding is ragged and bowling, which was most feared attack in world cricket is unable to penetrate, There is no sense of commitment in batting. Brian Lara is injured and not in his form. Shivnarayan Chanderpaul already played 49 test matches and in 81 innings he has got only 2 century. Ridley Jacob is an excellent wicket keeper batsman. But this team has lack of consistency and recent past they have white washed by South Africa.
It may not be temporary phenomenon as young athletics choose baseball and basketball ahead of cricket because those sports offer a passport to nearby United States for their better prospect.
Fans of West Indian Cricket will be hoping that Hooper’s men Chanderpaul, Cuffy, Dillon, Ganga, King will come up with a miracle to save the team from hitting extreme low.
