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Top Ten West Indian Batsmen/bowlers

Slifer

International Captain
Some here will probably disagree with my choices and their placements but as a West Indian, from what Ive read and seen myself here's a go at the top ten WI batsmen/bowlers in order:


1.G. Headley
2.G. Sobers
3.V. Richards
4.B. Lara
5.E. Weekes
6.C. Walcott
7.F. Worrell
8.R. Kanhai
9.C Lloyd
10.G. Greenidge

1.Marshall
2.Ambrose
3.Holding
4.Garner
5.Walsh
6.Roberts
7.Hall
8.Gibbs
9.Croft
10.Bishop
 
Last edited:

C_C

International Captain
2 halls ?
:D

My top 10:

1. Viv Richards
2. Gary Sobers
3. Brian Lara
4. Rohan Kanhai
5. Clyde Walcott
6. Everton Weekes
7. Alvin Kallicharan
8. Clive Lloyd
9. Frank Worrell
10. Conrad Hunte


Bowlers:

1. Malcolm Marshall
2. Curtley Ambrose
3. Michael Holding
4. Joel Garner
5. Lance Gibbs
6. Andy Roberts
7. Colin Croft
8. Coutney Walsh
9. Sonny Ramadhin
10. Ian Bishop
 

Zinzan

Request Your Custom Title Now!
C_C said:
2 halls ?
:D

My top 10:

1. Viv Richards
2. Gary Sobers
3. Brian Lara
4. Rohan Kanhai
5. Clyde Walcott
6. Everton Weekes
7. Alvin Kallicharan
8. Clive Lloyd
9. Frank Worrell
10. Conrad Hunte


Bowlers:

1. Malcolm Marshall
2. Curtley Ambrose
3. Michael Holding
4. Joel Garner
5. Lance Gibbs
6. Andy Roberts
7. Colin Croft
8. Coutney Walsh
9. Sonny Ramadhin
10. Ian Bishop
No Hedley in the top ten ??
 

Nate

You'll Never Walk Alone
Sobers then Lara for mine. Can`t see how you couldn`t put Sobers number one?!?
 

FaaipDeOiad

Hall of Fame Member
Batsmen
1. Gary Sobers
2. George Headley
3. Viv Richards
4. Brian Lara
5. Everton Weekes
6. Clyde Walcott
7. Rohan Kanhai
8. Clive Lloyd
9. Alvin Kallicharan
10. Conrad Hunte

Bowlers
1. Curtley Ambrose
2. Michael Holding
3. Malcolm Marshall
4. Joel Garner
5. Wes Hall
6. Lance Gibbs
7. Andy Roberts
8. Courtney Walsh
9. Ian Bishop
10. Colin Croft
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
or even Lara for that matter..... I think Lara is a better test match batter than Richards, but I have only seen the odd innings of his on tape and read about the rest. So, I may be speaking with only the evidence of stats, and they don't always say the whole truth.
 

tooextracool

International Coach
honestbharani said:
or even Lara for that matter..... I think Lara is a better test match batter than Richards, but I have only seen the odd innings of his on tape and read about the rest. So, I may be speaking with only the evidence of stats, and they don't always say the whole truth.
IMO richards is a much better player than lara, and that stems from the fact that lara was for an extremely large part of his career extremely inconsistent, even if the averages say that hes not.
 

Nate

You'll Never Walk Alone
tooextracool said:
Lara was for an extremely large part of his career extremely inconsistent, even if the averages say that hes not.
Whatever that means... :wacko:
 

tooextracool

International Coach
because just like tendulkar has been extremely inconsistent off late and still maintained a fairly good average, lara did the same from 96-00.
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
.BATSMEN (off the top of my head)
  1. Sobers
  2. Headley
  3. Lara
  4. Weekes
  5. Richards
  6. Worrell
  7. Walcott
  8. Kanhai
  9. Kallicharan
  10. Richardson

BOWLERS(again off the top and in no particular order)
  • Holding
  • Garner
  • Walsh
  • Ambrose
  • Hall
  • Gibbs
  • Valentine
  • Ramadhin
  • Marshall
  • Roberts
 

FaaipDeOiad

Hall of Fame Member
SJS said:
[*]Marshall
Out of curiosity, what is your opinion of Marshall? I never see you pick him in all-time teams and so on, and personally he never impressed me as much as the likes of Ambrose or Holding, despite the fact that he was clearly a very good bowler.
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
FaaipDeOiad said:
Out of curiosity, what is your opinion of Marshall? I never see you pick him in all-time teams and so on, and personally he never impressed me as much as the likes of Ambrose or Holding, despite the fact that he was clearly a very good bowler.
He was a very fine bowler indeed. But I never felt he was , like, really great.

You have to see bowlers like Andy Roberts bowling and watch what they are doing with the batsman and how every ball is part of a whole scheme before he finally gets his man. I never got that feeling with Marshall. It was just coming in and bowling quick and maybe short.

I must confess, I saw, relatively less of him than of, say Roberts and Holding.

Also, I think, though I am very reluctant to admit :) , his relatively open chested action may have biased my orthodox instincts a bit. :p

But if I have to choose the REAL GREAT BOWLERS I HAVE SEEN, I would choose, Imran, Hadlee, Lillee, Roberts and Holding as the top five.
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
vic_orthdox said:
FIELDERS
1. Joe Solomon
Add to that...
  • Roger Harper
  • Gary Sobers
  • Lance Gibbs(most people dont know how good he was at gully)
  • Conrad Hunte(Brilliant Cover)
  • Carl Hooper
  • Learie Constantine
  • Clive Lloyd
  • Lara
  • Richie Richardson
 

FaaipDeOiad

Hall of Fame Member
SJS said:
Also, I think, though I am very reluctant to admit :) , his relatively open chested action may have biased my orthodox instincts a bit. :p
I know what you mean. He doesn't have the same kind of attractive rhythm as other bowlers, because of his front-on style. I don't enjoy watching him as much as someone like Holding with a more classical style.

SJS said:
But if I have to choose the REAL GREAT BOWLERS I HAVE SEEN, I would choose, Imran, Hadlee, Lillee, Roberts and Holding as the top five.
Interesting that they are all from the same period. McGrath and Ambrose don't rate on the same level for you? Or Donald or Wasim, for that matter?
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
FaaipDeOiad said:
I know what you mean. He doesn't have the same kind of attractive rhythm as other bowlers, because of his front-on style. I don't enjoy watching him as much as someone like Holding with a more classical style.



Interesting that they are all from the same period. McGrath and Ambrose don't rate on the same level for you? Or Donald or Wasim, for that matter?
Wel they are from a twenty year period I would say. I have been watching for 40 years. The first ten I am leaving since I was too young and we saw much less of cricket due to no TV. So while I saw Hall, Griffith. I dont include them. Yes I could include Mckenzie.

I did not see Trueman.

Last ten years havent been great for fast bowling.

So that really leaves the period from 1975 to 1995 or so. In this there were lots of very good fast bowlers. i would say, after the second world war, this was the best period for fast bowling because both numbers and quality was very high. Lillee, Thomson, plenty of West Indians, Imran, Sarfaraz, Wasim and Waqar, Kapil, Botham Willis, Hadlee.

About Donald, yes, I missed him. Somehow, we tend to leave out the South Africans when we look at earlier periods, I think because we did not play them tilll very late. Yes he was very good. Very fast and very aggressive.

As for Wasim, I think he kept improving as a bowler. He was at his best , as a comlete bowler, in the later part of his career. He reaaly picked up a lot of tricks. But when he was younger, he was a tearaway bowler but nothing subtle. In that mode, Waqar was a better bowler.

I have always felt that MacGrath and bowlers of his type have been more successful because of the bad habits batsmen have picked up in the limited over game and carried them into the longer version. People like Gavaskar would not fall for this little bit of movement on and around the off stump and make mistakes. They would see it and have the patience to play it on merit for two days if required. To dislodge them you needed bowlers like Imran or Lillee who would surprise them with big movements in one direction and then the other. They had to be prised out by really unplayable deliveries and not just playing on their patience. it works today because the batsmen show less patience.

Gavaskar, Boycott etc wouldnt get out to MacGrath that easily. I am not saying he is not a very good bowler but he relies a lot on batsmen making mistakes the way spinners do where as the great fast bowlers that i have listed will bowl unplayable deliveries more frequently.

You should try to get some old films of Imran, Roberts and Holding bowling to see what I mean.
Waqar also used to do that in more recent times.

Again with Ambrose, I did not see enough. And like Marshall he was not "pretty" but I saw quite a bit of him in his last two years. He was phenomenally accurate in that period and very awkward height. He too seemed to become a better mover of the ball as he grew older.

You have to understand that Roberts and Holding did not bowl in a four man fast bowleing attack as it became later. So the batsman did get some respite from fast bowling and settled down. When West Indies started having a four bowler attack, i feel, individual bowlers had things easier. For the same reason, Imran and Hadlee were so great since they did not have great support at the other end.

Some people believe this is good for them since they will get more wickets, but thats not accurate, they will also come back to bowl at batsmen who are settled and playing more confidently.
 

Link

State Vice-Captain
Viv was also a very good fielder. I was watching cricket legends the other day, and aparently he initiated two or so runouts in the in the CW cup final agiants australia in some year i cant remember. I know thats not amazing but he did look a very good fielder
 

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