I personally think you rate Gillespie far too lowly
no i dont... he is an excellent bowler....however, he would struggle to get a shout at barbados full XI let alone WI.......Roberts, Garner, Ambrose,Marshall,Croft,Holding were EASILY better than gillchrist and the talk is best WI team of that period vs best OZ team of their period....
Essentially OZ have two bowlers comparable/better than the WI FOUR : McGrath and Warne....Gillespie might take a fivefer but i dont see him average under 30 against the WI.
I would hazard to say that the consistency of McGrath against the WI batsmen would be one heck of a contest.
Indeed...i see him being quiete successful too....but i see Marshall being extremely successful and neutralising McGrath.....Warne...about as successful as Ambrose/Garner or even a wee bit more.....but Garner/Roberts beat the pants off Dizzy and Kaspa....by a longshot.
McGrath against Viv would be VERY interesting too. Viv's primary scoring strength were largely on the leg-side (particularly that amazing lofted flick), as was Greenidge's, but against McGrath and Gillespie, who deliberately bowl wide of off-stump consistently, he might have found it difficult.
Disagree.... Viv used to flick sixes through midwicket(only Laxman can replicate that shot with consistency) but he had an AWESOME coverdrive as well.....Kapil and Hadlee used to bowl wide off ofstump too and WI didnt do badly against them.
Only trouble is you fail to understand that the WI never faced a team like Australia that was far more professional and have a team of fielders as good as if not better than Lloyd.
If you had seen the likes of Lloyd, Viv, Greenidge, Haynes,Logie(12th man) etc. on the field, you wouldnt make that comment....Lloyd was easily the BEST fielder at cover i've seen...by a longshot. Viv was as good as Taylor or Mark Waugh at the slips if not better....and Logie was in the Jonty Rhodes category except that he could field anywhere...
WI are were easily a better fielding side than OZ.....its not even close and the only side i have seen that can seriously challenge WI in the field are RSA of the mid/late 90s after Gibbs arrived.
WI were one dimensional in their game and that served them well in the period they played but it would be their downfall if they had to face up to Australia now.
highly doubt it. One dimentional or not, they were simply the BEST DAMN BOWLING UNIT EVER to take the cricket field. They would just pummell the OZ into submission 9 outta 10 times.
The WI would struggle to get through their overs and would find it very hard to score.
again, doubt it. WI had slow overrate because they did not have any overs restrictions.After overrates were introduced, WI were within limits... However, it rarely mattered as WI bowled out teams even with their slow overrate....infact a faster overrate would be even worse for the Aussies.
Look at any sport and you will see that professionalism improves the game beyond doubt, Bannister broke the four minute mile and was an out and out champion but nowdays his times would not even qualify him for the olympics. Sport evolves and improves and the champions of the day are matched and surpassed, In 20 years time Australia today would probably be lucky to beat the fourth rated team.
That is not always true and i believe that the level of cricket has gone down from the 80s and not up...the general trend maybe towards the top but this period is definately a dip in terms of quality.
I can see the RSA unit of the late 60s/70s/early 80s giving ANY TEAM a run for its money and same with the WI.... whether the 4th ranked team 25 years from now would be better than current day OZ is debatable but i certainly know from observing cricket that the level of cricket played by THIS OZ team is on par or slightly lower than the WI of the past.
WI were great and a champion team but what you need to come to terms with is WERE.
Right. And where did i say that they ARE currently ? we ARE pitting the old WI against current OZ , are we not ?
Alan Donalds average against Australia is over 30 in tests.
bad example then. but then again, being alone is a helluva lot easier to be neutralised than having 4 bowlers of your callibre terrorising the opposition.
Watch some tapes from the 80s or 70s to get an idea... if you are capable of honest and unbiassed evaluation(which i highly doubt), you will find that the WI bowling unit is simply too far ahead of the OZ today....far enough that minor batting differences could be easily neutralised and then some.
