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Precarious Present, Glorious Past … Meet the Mighty West Indies

Today really is a bittersweet day for any West Indian cricket fan. Whilst the current side has completed a 2-0 series defeat against South Africa in pretty abject fashion, the date of June 29 will always be special for West Indian cricket.

It marks a particularly special ‘Golden Jubilee’, in so much that 50 years ago today, the West Indies completed their first ever Test Match victory, defeating the ‘mother country’, England, by 326 runs in the 2nd Test at Lord’s.

This would mark the beginning of a period in which the West Indies were the repeated source of pride and glory for its people at home, but particularly for those West Indians who had settled in the UK.

For the next 40 years, they would watch generations of great West Indian cricketers dominate the sport, playing a brand of cricket hitherto unseen.

Where Ramadhin and Valentine had spun the West Indies to their 1950 victory, they would be followed by a conveyor belt of spectacularly quick, hostile fast bowlers, the likes of Hall, Holding and Marshall.

This combined with a group of elegant, exciting batsmen full of flair in the likes of Richards and Sobers to name but a few, made these West Indian teams the most successful and feared of their generation. However, they were loved throughout the world, for they played the game with such joy and excitement.

Regular visitors to this page will recall that I previously embarked upon a task to name the Greatest West Indies XI of all time. I truly found this an unenviable challenge, given the sheer number of truly great players produced by the Caribbean nations.

I was staggered that we had 82 people send in responses either via email, Twitter or Facebook. Of those, only 5 selected the same team, and only 3 players were chosen on each side.

Not withstanding the fact that several people chose 2 sides, there were many as 30 players selected by those who voted, which is a phenomenal amount, all considered, and again emphasises how many great cricketers the West Indies have produced.

After all of the votes were collated, I am delighted to name the Greatest West Indies XI of all time, as chosen by the readers of Random Musings:-

As you will have heard in the above video, we named 2 sides. Firstly, it’s about prerogative, and moreover, I wanted desperately to pay tribute to as many of our West Indian greats as possible. The Greatest XI is listed below:-

	Cuthbert Gordon GREENIDGE 108 Test Matches 7,558 Runs 19 Centuries Average: 44.72
	Sir Conrad Cleophas HUNTE 44 Test Matches 3,245 Runs 8 Centuries Average: 45.06
	Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander RICHARDS 121 Test Matches 8,540 Runs 24 Centuries Average: 50.23
	Brian Charles LARA 131 Test Matches 11,953 Runs 34 Centuries Average: 52.88
	Rohan Bholalall KANHAI 79 Test Matches 6,227 Runs 15 Centuries Average: 47.53
	Sir Frank Mortimer Maglinne WORRELL (Captain) 51 Test Matches 3,860 Runs 9 Centuries Average: 49.48
	Sir Garfield St Aubrun SOBERS 93 Test Matches 8,032 Runs at Average: 57.78 26 Centuries 235 Wickets at Average: 34.03
	Peter Jeffrey Leroy DUJON (WK) 81 Test Matches 3,322 Runs 5 Centuries Average: 31.94 267 Catches; 5 Stumpings
	Malcolm Denzil MARSHALL 81 Test Matches 376 Wickets at Average: 20.94 5 Wickets in an Innings on 22 occasions
	Michael Anthony HOLDING 60 Test Matches 249 Wickets at Average: 23.68 5 Wickets in an Innings on 13 occasions
	Curtley Elconn Lynwall AMBROSE 98 Test Matches 405 Wickets at Average: 20.99 5 Wickets in an Innings on 22 occasions

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The above XI are a true testimony to the unique heritage of West Indian cricket, Calypso Cricket as it was widely known. Whilst the Australians have won more 1-Day World Cups and surpassed several Test Match records during their more recent period of dominance, it is clear to me, even with justified bias, that they will never be loved and celebrated in the global manner that these great West Indians were.

So whilst the current incumbents may often be the cause of dismay and angst amongst West Indian cricket supporters, they can always remember a time when this tiny group of nations and islands ruled the cricketing world.

Editor ~ An official project is being run to select a West Indian all-time XI, details of which can be found here. It will be interesting to see how their choices compare!