User:Tintin1107/WI

The 1960s

Despite being a country where whites are a minority, till 1960 West Indies were always captained by white cricketers. Throughout the fifites voices, mainly lead by C. L. R. James and Learie Constantine, calling for a black captain grew. Finally, Frank Worrell was chosen to lead West Indies in their tour of Australia in 1960. In his three years as captain, Worrell moulded a bunch of talented, but raw cricketers into the best team in the world.

In 1960, Australia were the best team in the world but on their way down, while West Indies were on their way up. It so happened that when they met, the two teams were of almost equal strength. The result was one of the greatest series of all time. The first Test in Brisbane ended in a tie. The teams shared the next two Tests. In the fourth, Australian last pair of Ken Mackay and Lindsay Kline played out the last 100 minutes of the match to earn a draw, while Australia won the final Test and the series by two wickets. One of the days of play was attended by a world record crowd of 90,800. Such was the impression created by Worrell's team that the newly instituted trophy for the series between the two teams was named Frank Worrell Trophy. Half a million people lined the streets of Melbourne to bide them farewell.

West Indies had little trouble disposing off India 5-0 at home next year. In 1963, they beat a fine English team by three matches to one. The Lord's Test of this series saw a famous finish. With two balls left, England needed six runs to win, and West Indies one wicket. The non-striker was Colin Cowdrey whose had his left arm in a sling, having got it fractured earlier in the day. However, David Allen safely played out the last two balls and the match ended in a draw. Worrell retired at the end of the series. The selectors picked Garry Sobers to succeed him. Worrell served as the team manager when West Indies hosted Australia in 1964/65.

The matches against Australia were bitterly fought, with accusations about Charlie Griffith's action, and bouncer wars. West Indies won this series 2-1 to be the unofficial world champions. Sobers, however, was no Worrell and cracks soon began to appear. Often it was his individual brilliance that made the difference between a win and a loss. Throughout the sixties, West Indies bowling was lead by Wes Hall, Griffith, Lance Gibbs and Sobers himself.Hall and Griffith faded and then retired by the end of the decade, but WI could find no replacement for them till the mid-seventies.

Sobers was at his best in England in 1966 scoring 722 runs and taking 20 wickets in the five Tests. Three times he topped 150, and the 163* at Lord's turned a certain defeat into a near victory. West Indies won 3-1, but the victory was somewhat soured by an unexpected innings defeat in the last Test.

Sir Frank Worrell died in 1967 from leukaemia at the age of 42.

England toured West Indies in 1967-68. West Indies were forced follow on in the first Test but saved it without difficulty. The second Test was played on an underprepared wicket at Kingston. England won an important toss and scored 376. The bounce of the wicket having become very uneven, West Indies collapsed to 143 and followed on again. On the fourth day in the second innings, a disputed decision lead to a crowd riot and match had to be stopped for sometime. In a curious decision, the West Indian Cricket Board (WICB) agreed to add a 75 minute sixth day to compensate for the lost time. Sobers played an outstanding innings of 113* which allowed West Indies to set England a target of 159 in 155 minutes. England just about saved the game losing eight wickets for 68.

West Indies gained a first innings lead of 122 in the fourth Test at Port-of-Spain but with the second innings score at 92 for 2, Sobers surprisingly declared the innings. England were set a target of 215 in 165 minutes and they achieved it with 3 minutes to spare. Sobers' unnecessary generosity was widely cricticised. The declaration was pointless because West Indies had little chance of winning the match. Hall was not playing and Griffith was out with injury. It left only Gibbs and Sobers to carry the bowling. West Indies made one last effort to win the final Test, but England drew it with only wicket left in their second innings. West Indies lost the series 0-1, the first defeat since 1960-61.

From then, West Indies were on their way down. Australia and Bill Lawry had their revenge in 1968-69. West Indies won the first Test at Brisbane thanks to Sobers' career best 6/73, but Australia won the next two. The fourth seemed to go the way of the third when Australia took a first innings lead of 247. West Indies fought back magnificiently - Butcher scored a century, Kanhai, Joey Carew and David Holford narrowly missed theirs. They were allout on the last morning for 616, setting Australia 360 to win. Australia entered the last hour needing 57 with seven wickets in hand. After series of runouts - including Ian Redpath who was Mankaded- they were 333 for 9. But the last pair held on till the end. Any hopes of coming back were destroyed by the Australian first innings of 619 at Sydney, which included a 242 by Doug Walters. Lawry did not enforce the follow on, and instead set West Indies 735 to win in nearly two days. West Indies lost the series 1-3.

New Zealand managed to draw the series that followed. West Indies wound up with a 0-2 defeat in the three Tests in England. A decade that began with Worrell and so much promise had evolved into the darkest years, atleast until the early 2000s, in the West Indian cricket history.

The 1970s

West Indies' woes overflowed into the seventies. At home in 1970-71 , they lost to India for the first time. In the next year, a five Test series against New Zealand cricket team ended with no team coming remotely close to winning one. The problem continued to be the bowling. The bowlers who accompanied Sobers in the Test that was lost to India were Vanburn Holder , Grayson Shillingford, Jack Noreiga and Arthur Barrett which is not the sort of attack that is likely to win Test matches. A major find in the New Zealand series was Lawrence Rowe who started off with a double century and century on his debut. He was immensely talented but his temparament did not let him go far.

Sobers continued to be the greatest cricketer in the world. Even in the series against India, he had scored three hundreds and a 93. In 1970 he captained a Rest of the World - arguably the greatest team ever assembled - in a five 'Test' series against England. In the first match of the series, he hit 183 and took 6/21 and 2/43. Neville Cardus was impressed enough to write that given a wicketkeeper and, say, Mike Procter, Sobers could defeat the English team on his own. A year later, he captained another similar side to Australia . RoW fell behind early and Sobers faced cricticim for spending more time on the golf course than with his players. Sobers responded with an innings of 254 at Melbourne, putting the Australian wonderboy Dennis Lillee in his place while doing so and eventually winning the series. He then landed up in a controversy when he partnered South African captain Ali Bacher in a double wicket tournament in Rhodesia. Some cricket boards, Guyana in particular, demanded his censure. Fed up, he stepped down as the captain and rested himself from the home series against Australia in 1972-73.

Under Rohan Kanhai, West Indies showed the first signs of revival. Australia won the closely fought series by two Tests. With Sobers back - but Kanhai still the captain - West Indies hammered England in 1973. One spectacular performance was by the new boy Keith Boyce who hit 72 and took 11 wickets at the Oval. At Lord's, West Indies won by an innings and 226 runs, their biggest win against England. The return series in West Indies ended 1-1, though the home team was clearly the better side. Rowe continued his dream run scoring three centuries including a 302 at Kingston. The final Test of this series marked the ended of an era in West Indies cricket - it was the last Test of both Garry Sobers and Rohan Kanhai - and the beginning of the most glorious period in their history.

Lloyd's Team

The new captain Clive Lloyd had made his first appearance in Test cricket in 1966 and had since become a fixture in the side. His avuncular appearance and a stoop near the shoulders masked the fact that was a very fine fielder, especially in the covers, and a devastating stroke player. Lloyd's first assignment was the tour of India in 1974-75.

In the ten years from 1963, hardly one new bowler of note had joined the West Indian team. Finally, the MCC tour of the previous season saw the first appearance of Andy Roberts. He was joined by Michael Holding in 1975 -76. Colin Croft and Joel Garner made their debut in the next year, and Malcolm Marshall two years after. In the span of about four years, West Indies brought together a bowling line up of a quality that had rarely seen before. The Indian tour saw the debut of Vivian Richards, arguably the finest ever West Indian batsman, and Gordon Greenidge who never got the credit he deserved because he was an exact contemporary of Richards. The team already had the batsmen Alvin Kallicharran and opener Roy Fredericks in addition to Rowe and Lloyd.

West Indies won the first two Tests against India comfortably. Greenidge started his career with 107 and 93 on his debut. Richards failed in his first Test, but scored 192* in his second. India fought back to win the next two, but Lloyd hit 242* in the final Test to win the series.

West Indies won the inaugural World Cup in England in 1975 defeating Australia in the final. At the end of the year they toured Australia, only to lose 1-5 in the six Test series. It was mostly impetous and irresponsible batting that lost the series. The Australian bowled bouncers liberally, the batsmen could not restrain themselves but could not clear the long boundaries. The only Test that West Indies won was at Perth. When West Indies started their innings 90 minutes before lunch, Fredericks hooked the second ball from Lillee for six. In the fourteen overs before lunch, West Indies made 130 for 1, Fredericks 81*. He reached 50 off 33 balls, 100 in 71 and went on score 169.

India toured West Indies in early 1976. West Indies won the first Test and nearly lost the second in Port of Spain. The third Test was to be played at Georgetown but because of heavy rains it was shifted to Port of Spain. West Indies went in with three spinners, dominated the early part of the match and set India 403 to win in the second innings. The failure of the spinners to stop the Indians from winning led Lloyd to rely completely on his fast bowlers from then on. The immediate result was some nasty bits of bowling in the Kingston Test that followed. The West Indian bowlers, especially Michael Holding, bowled bouncers and not infrequently, beamers, from around the wicket targetting the batsmen. Three batsmen were put in the hospital. India closed their second innings with only five wickets down West Indies won by ten wickets.

England were the next in line. In a TV interview before the series, English captain Tony Greig commented that the West Indies tend to do badly under pressure and that 'we'll make them grovel'. This comment, especially as it came from a South African born player, touched a raw nerve of the West Indians . Throughout the series, the English batsmen were subjected to some very hostile bowling. After the first two Tests ended in draws, West Indies won the next three. Of the many heroes for West Indies, Richards stood out with 829 runs in four Tests. He hit 232 at Trent Bridge and 291 at the Oval. Greenidge scored three hundreds, two of which were on the difficult wicket at Old Trafford. Roberts and Holding shared 55 wickets between them, Holding's 8 for 92 and 6 for 57 on the dead wicket at the Oval being a superlative effort.

Packer years

West Indies won a home series against a tough Pakistan side in 1976-77. A few months later, the World Series Cricket (WSC) controversy broke out. Most of the West Indian players signed up with Kerry Packer. The Australian team that toured West Indies the next year included no Packer players, but West Indies Cricket Board fielded a full strength team under the argument that none of the West Indies players had refused to play. But disputes arose in the matter of payment and about the selection of certain players. Before the third Test, Lloyd resigned his captaincy. Within two days all the other WSC contracted players also withdrew. Alvin Kallicharran captained the team for the remaining Tests.

WICB allowed the WSC players to appear in the 1979 World Cup. West Indies retained the title with little difficulty. By the end of 1979, the WSC disputes were resolved. Kallicharran was deposed and Lloyd returned as captain.

West Indies toured New Zealand in the same season in a series that saw many controversies. New Zealand won the first Test at Dunedin by one wicket but West Indies were never happy with the umpiring. West Indies discontent boiled over the next Test at Christchurch. While running into bowl, Colin Croft deliberately shouldered the umpire Fred Goodall. When Goodall went to talk to Lloyd about Croft's behaviour, he had to walk all the way too meet the West Indian captain, as the latter did not move an inch from his position at the slips. After tea on the third day, West Indies refused to take the field unless Goodall was removed. They were persuaded to continue and it took intense negotiations between the two boards to keep the tour on track.

The 1980s

The seventies had started and ended with defeats, but it was 15 years before West Indies again lost another Test series. In 27 Test matches between 1982 and 1985, they remained unbeaten; they won 11 Tests in a row during that sequence. The team came to be regarded as one of the all time great teams, on par with Don Bradman's Invincibles and later, the Australian team of early 2000s.

In early 1983, a West Indian rebel team toured South Africa. It was led by Lawrence Rowe and included prominent players like Alvin Kallicharran, Colin Croft, Collis King and Sylvester Clarke. WICB banned the players for life (which was later revoked), and some were refused entry back home. However, the rebels managed another tour the next year which included most of the players of the original team.

A major setback around this time was the defeat to India in the final of the 1983 Cricket World Cup. Before the year was out, West Indies had the revenge defeating India 3-0 in a Test series and 5-0 in the one day series that went with it.

After the series in India, West Indies hosted Australia which was weakened by the retirement of some of their prominent players. Australia managed to draw the first two Tests with some difficulty but were blown away in the next three. This was followed by the 1984 tour of England which West Indies won 5-0. It was the first time in sixty years that England was beaten in every match of a series and it went down in history as the blackwash series. At Leeds, Malcolm Marshall, who had fractured his left hand, came out and batted with one hand to secure a vital first innings lead. He followed this by taking 7 for 53, bowling with his left hand in a bandage. Gordon Greenidge scored two double hundreds in the series and at times even West Indian tailenders had fun at the expense of English bowlers. In a Texaco Trophy one day match which was part of the series, Richards set a new world record by scoring 189 not out.

Having won eight matches in a row, West Indies travelled to Australia and extended it to eleven. By the end of the second Test, Australian had lost their captain Kim Hughes who resigned. West Indies nearly won the fourth Test which ended with Australia eight wickets down, but unexpectedly lost the final Test by an innings. West Indies bowlers gave away the advantage by bowling short on a slowish wicket and when West Indies batted Australian spinners bowled them out twice. Lloyd retired from Test cricket at the end of the series. He captained West Indies in a record 74 Test matches, winning 36 of them.

Vivian Richards was the natural successor to Lloyd. The England team that toured West Indies in 1985-86 was supposed to be much stronger than the one that lost in 1984. Their South African rebels had since returned and England had regained the Ashes a few months previously. But the series turned out be even more of a rout, West Indies winning 5-0 again. In his home ground in Antigua, Richards scored a hundred in 56 balls, the fastest ever in Tests. England fared little better when West Indies toured in 1988 , losing 4-0. Marshall took 35 wickets, a record in the matches between the two teams. It was only Pakistan who fought West Indies on something like level terms. Three successsive series between the two teams ended in 1-1 draws.

Meanwhile a change of old guard was also happening. Joel Garner and Michael Holding had retired by 1987. A major find was Curtly Ambrose who was a tall as Garner and even better bowler. Courtney Walsh who made his first appearance in 1984 bowled with an action that resembled Holding. Ian Bishop also had a similar action, and was as good a bowler till injuries interrupted his career. Patrick Patterson was faster than all the rest, but had a short career. Marshall still was the finest fast bowler in the world. It was batting that was beginning to show signs of weakness.

When West Indies failed in the 1986-87 World Series Cup, it was only the second time (after the 1983 World Cup) that they had to failed a one day tournament or series that they took part in. They also failed to qualify for the semifinal of the 1987 World Cup.

By the end of the eighties West Indies had come a long way down. While still the best team in the world, they had lost the aura of invincibility that they had till the middle of the decade. Finding good replacements for senior players was again becoming a problem. This reached disastrous proportions in the years to follow.

1990s

It was five more years before West Indies lost a series, but they had a number of close shaves. South Africa on their comeback played its first Test match in Bridgetown, a match which was attended by less than 10,000 people because of a boycott. Needing 201 to win on the last day, South Africa reached 123 for 2 before Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh took the remaining wickets for 25 runs. In 1992-93, West Indies defeated Australia by one run at Adelaide where a loss could have cost them the series. In 1992, West Indies once again failed to qualify for the World Cup semifinal.

For most of the nineties and afterwards, the West Indian batting was dominated by Brian Lara. He became a regular in the side after the retirement of Richards in 1991. Against England at Antigua 1993-94, he scored 375 and broke Sobers' world record for the highest individual score in Test cricket. He continued his fine form for Warwickshire and hit seven first class hundreds in eight innings. The last of these, scored on the fiftieth anniversary of the D-Day, was a 501 not out against Durham which improved upon Hanif Mohammad's thirty-five year old record as the highest score in first class cricket.

Australia finally defeated West Indies 2-1 in 1994-95 to become the unofficial world champions of Test cricket. The 1996 World Cup ended with a defeat in the semifinal which forced Richie Richardson who had taken over the captaincy from Richards in 1991, end his career in disgrace. West Indies made a landmark tour of South Africa in 1998-99. It ended in a disaster, starting with player revolts, and ending with a 0-5 defeat.

One of the few bright spots in this bleak period was a home series against Australia. West Indies were dismissed for 51, their lowest ever score, in the first Test. Lara hit 213 in the second to level the series. In the third, West Indies barely managed to avoid the follow on but Ambrose bowled Australia out for 146. Needing 308 to win, West Indies lost their fifth wicket at 105. From there, Lara played a magnificent innings of 153* and took West Indies to a one wicket win. Wisden rated Lara's innings as the second best ever Tests.

The 1999 World Cup campaign ended in the group stages. The next year, England won a series against West Indies for the first time in thirty-one years. West Indies ended the decade with another 0-5 defeat in Australia.

2000s

These were easily the worst days in West Indian cricket. Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, the latter after setting a new record of 519 wickets, were gone by 2001. The bowlers who came after them were hardly Test class. Despite the presence of some good batsmen like Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, the batting more or less started and ended with Brian Lara.

After a slump in the late 1990s, Lara regained his touch but this seemed to make little difference to West Indies. The series in Sri Lanka was typical. Lara scored 688 runs, against Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas, in three Tests; West Indies lost 0-3, two of them by ten wickets.

Carl Hooper captained the team in the 2003 World Cup after which he was sacked in favour of Lara. Lara himself was replaced by Chanderpaul in 2004. West Indies won the ICC Champions Trophy under him the same year.

A major dispute broke out in 2005 between the West Indian Players Association (WIPA) and the Cricket Board. The point of contention was the 'clause 5' of the tour contract which gave WICB the sole and exclusive right to arrange for sponsorship, advertising, licensing, merchandising and promotional activities relating to WICB or any WICB Team. Digicel were the sponsors of the West Indian Team while most of the players had contracts with Cable & Wireless. This and a payment dispute meant West Indies a second string side in the tour of Sri Lanka in 2005. As of August 2005, there is little sign of the issue getting resolved.