PACE LIKE FIYAAH!
 The West Indies did not lose a single test series
between 1980 and 1995. Theirs counts as one of the
longest periods of domination across all sports.
 Two consecutive World Cup wins in 1975 and 1979;
runners-up in 1983.
 Their aura of invincibility largely rested upon a pace
battery that didn t give the opposition any breathing
space.
 Cricket became a symbol of power for the coloured
Caribbean masses who were oppressed under their
colonial masters.
Wreckers-in-Chief
 The fearsome quartet of Andy
Roberts, Michael Holding,
Joel Garner and Colin Croft
evoked fear from the ranks of
opposition batsmen.
 Holding, or
Whispering
Death as he was called,
presented sheer pace; Garner,
the Big Bird standing 2.03 m
tall, presented bounce. Croft
came in with a tough angle.
And Roberts was believed to
be the brain behind them all!
 The quartet was ably led by Clive
Lloyd whose very brainchild was this
four-pronged pace attack.
 In 1978, came along Malcolm
Marshall. Rated as one of the finest
ever, he was the key behind the famous
1984 Blackwash.
 By the late 1980s, Courtney Walsh,
Curtly Ambrose, Ian Bishop and
Patrick Patterson emerged on the
scene and carried on the legacy.
 The lead pacers were backed by a long
support cast of some more fast bowlers
such as Sylvester Clark, Vanburn
Holder, Keith Boyce, Ezra Moseley,
Bernard Julien, Tony Gray, Winston
Davis, Milton Small, Eldine Baptiste
etc.
The Background
 A disastrous tour to Australia in 1975-76 saw the
West Indies losing 1-4 and getting bruised and
battered by Australia s quicks Dennis Lillee and
Jeff Thomson.
 Meanwhile, back home, the little Caribbean
islands were in a state of flux; some trying to win
independence from the British while the others
trying to come out of the colonial shadows of the
past.
 The migrant coloured population in places like the
UK were still treated as second-class humans.
 Cricket was the only source of establishing black
supremacy in a sport patronised by the whites.
The Surge To Power!
 The Australia tour made Clive Lloyd learn the
hard way as to how fast bowling can singlehandedly win you matches.
 The West Indies domination began with a 21 win over India, with India declaring their
second innings complete only after the fall of
5 wickets, accusing
WI of persistent
intimidatory bowling.
 Next came the 1976 tour to England, prior to
which the English captain Tony Greig made
his infamous We ll make them grovel!
comment.
Who s Gro eling No ?
 West Indies went into the Tests with
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Holding, Holder, Roberts and Daniel,
supplemented by Julien.
Holding was menacingly quick. His match
figures at The Oval read 14/149.
Roberts took two 5WI hauls at The Lords.
England were rolled over for 71 & 126 at the
Old Trafford (Holding 5/17 in the 1st innings
and Roberts 6/37 in the 2nd).
English batsmen, especially Edrich and
Close, and Greig himself, were bombarded
with fierce bouncers.
WI won the 5-match test series 3-0 and
blanked out the ODI series 3-0.
World Series Cricket
 The West Indies cricketers took to Kerry
Packer s rebel league in 1977-78 and soon
became massive crowd pullers in Australia.
 The WSC West Indies XI won the Supertest
series 2-1 in 1977/78 and the limited overs
International Cup the same season.
 Packer s rebel league grew bigger in 1978/79
and the establishment had to give in. WI won
the finals of the one-day cricket again 3-1.
 Australian cricketers in the league went on to
describe this phase as the toughest phase of
their careers on account of having to face
West Indies pacers day in and day out.
T ice Black ash-ed
 England, the erstwhile colonial masters had
to face the brunt of West Indies brutal pace
assault.
 The West Indies handed to them
demoralising 5-0 series defeats twice: in 1984
in England and in 1985/86 in the Caribbean.
 Debutant Andy Lloyd got hit on the head off
a Marshall bouncer and Garner took 5/55 in
the second dig in the Lords victory.
 Marshall took a 6-fer and a 7-fer in the next
two Tests respectively, and another 5/35 in
the last Test to decimate England.
 Clive Lloyd was succeeded by Viv
Richards as the captain. He carried
on his predecessor s legacy and built
on the existing pace battery.
 The 1985/86 series in the West
Indies saw Marshall continuing to
be a menace for the English
batsmen.
 Marshall was supported by Garner
and Patrick Patterson.
 At the height of anti-apartheid
protests, this series was a watershed
moment in sport history.
Other notable wins
 A 3-0 thumping of Australia at home in
1983/84 and 3-1 series wins away in 1984/85
and 1988/89 were all championed by topclass pace bowling and a flairy batting.
 A 3-0 win in India in 1983/84 established the
supremacy of these lethal fast bowlers on
even low and dusty unresponsive pitches.
 England were thumped again by margins of
4-1 and 2-1 in 1988 and 1989/90 respectively.
 Still standing record of 27 undefeated Tests
on the run. The streak included 11
consecutive victories.
A Statistical Overview
The Legacy
 The West Indian domination of cricket for over two
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decades was a symbol of recognition for the coloured
people in the Caribbean islands and the migrant
population in other countries.
Victories in cricket united the scattered islands and
gave them an united identity to cherish and feel proud
of.
The fast bowling quartet inspired youngsters to take to
fast bowling. Bouncy pitches characterised cricket in
the West Indies for quite a long time.
The fast bowling culture became a part of popular
public perception; word like Smell-da-ledda (smell
the leather) were chanted in unison by crowds to build
pressure on visiting batsmen.
The legacy seems to have waned off since the late
1990s. Here s hoping it would resurface again!