|
I already hear you whisper: "No Ambrose, no Holding!" But it is hard to ignore Andy Roberts, Joel Garner and Courtney Walsh - fast bowlers who not just terrorised batsmen with their speeds but also possessed a bowling intellect that could dominate the bat in any era on any surface. Mind you, Roberts, the unsmiling assassin, was also a match-winner with bat - remember the 1975 World Cup match against Pakistan? Michael Holding might have more wickets and the better average, but the (still) towering Garner had the accuracy and an economy rate to die for. And in Walsh, the highest all-time highest wicket-taker for West Indies across World Cups, you had a fast bowler that could extract speed in an unassuming fashion. So, sorry, Sir Curtly. 
Complementing them would be Jason Holder, performing the lead allrounder role. Roger Harper and Andre Russell were tempting picks too. But a weaker batting suit (Harper) and injuries (Russell) meant Holder was the best choice.
As for the XI's wicketkeeper, Ridley Jacobs has the best numbers as a batsman, Jeffrey Dujon the popularity, but in Deryck Murray we have an intelligent, smart tactician and, importantly, a calm person with safe hands. Oh, Murray was an efficient batsman too, a skill he showed in the 1975 World Cup triumph. The easiest bit was slotting the batting order, underpinned by its muscularity. Chris Gayle, Gordon Greenidge, Viv Richards, Brian Lara, and Ramnaresh Sarwan - power, muscle, finesse, skills, big heart. Couldn't Shivnarine Chanderpaul have made it? He could, but Sarwan had a better average and strike rate and was the better fielder. To lead such big personalities you need an even bigger personality and in Clive Lloyd you had one. Supercat also had paws that plucked some memorable catches in slips and effortlessly grasped two World Cups and nearly the third. Nagraj Gollapudi is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo. Vote for your West Indies all-time World Cup XI here
|
