• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

Why havent West Indies historically produced more great spinners?

subshakerz

subshakerz

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Big exception of Gibbs, but you would think with a century of cricket, West Indies would have had more worldclass spinners. Why havent they?
 
wpdavid

wpdavid

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Maybe Ramdhin and Valentine in the 1950s. No idea whether their overall track record was world class, but they were good enough to win tests in England in 1950 and, I think, the next series as well. They were eventually blunted by English batsmen taking advantage of the LBW rules at the time to pad them away with impunity, so I shouldn't draw too many conclusions from their stats in those matches.

Maybe they just weren't developed after Gibbs because of the example of the legion of quicks that they produced.
 
Starfighter

Starfighter

Request Your Custom Title Now!
If we take an average of 30, then lists of world class spinners are not very long anywhere in the covered pitch era. In WI specifically, the polish clay pitches probably weren't very conducive to spinners. At some point a strong cultural bias towards fast bowling developed, but I don't think was really exceptional until after the reliance on pace became established.

I've also gotten the impression that Lloyd was a somewhat limited captain who struggled to get the best out of spinners, and the resultant mindset continued under Richards. A player of Harper's ability would have played far more for another team or in another era.
 
the big bambino

the big bambino

Cricketer Of The Year
The famous loss to India at Port of Spain set Lloyd against spin and they haven't produced a notable spinner since.
 
Thala_0710

Thala_0710

Cricketer Of The Year
How good do you think someone like Narine might have been had he focused on red ball cricket?
 
A

AndrewB

International Vice-Captain
wpdavid said:
Maybe Ramdhin and Valentine in the 1950s. No idea whether their overall track record was world class, but they were good enough to win tests in England in 1950 and, I think, the next series as well. They were eventually blunted by English batsmen taking advantage of the LBW rules at the time to pad them away with impunity, so I shouldn't draw too many conclusions from their stats in those matches.
Click to expand...
In the next series (in WI in 1954) Ramadhin was the leading wicket-taker on either side (23@24.30); Valentine only played in the first 3 Tests and took 7@54 (he was replaced by Ferguson in the 4th Test and a 17-year-old Sobers in the 5th), though to be fair those wickets included Hutton and Compton twice each.
 
Johan

Johan

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Just for the fun of it, my top ten West-Indian spin bowler
  1. Lance Gibbs
  2. Alf Valentine
  3. Devendra Bishoo
  4. Jomal Warrican
  5. Jack Noreiga
  6. Gudakesh Motie
  7. Roger Harper
  8. Shane Shillingford
  9. Dinanath Ramnarine
  10. Rangy Nanan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Top