HEADLINE: “WEST INDIES ALL-TIME MEN’S TEST TEAM – A WICKET-KEEPER PLEASE!”

That’s like picking Larry Bird or Luka over Steph Curry

Madness

POPPYCOCK
HENDRIKS is the best West Indies wicketkeeper and it is not even close.I will expand on this later.

In reply to imusic

thanks for the gentle cuss, Musicman

In reply to imusic



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Best keeper I have seen is Michael Findlay. He was cast aside because there was a need t o get Deryck Murray into the side.
Watching him standing up to the stumps with Roberts and Shillingford bowling was just amazing

The reason that assessing wicketkeepers is difficult is because the statistics used generally to assess them are wholly inadequate.It should not be the amount of catches a wicketkeeper takes but the percentage they dropped.If you are wicketkeeping and your team have the greatest fast bowlers in history then your figures will be better than those who were wicketkeeping when Vanburn Holder and Grayson Shillingford were bowling.

Jackie Hendriks is far and away the best West Indies wicketkeeper I have seen and I have seen them all since 1965.The other two who really impressed me are David Murray and Michael Findlay.
The author of this thread says that many people say Hendriks is the best gloveman and I would like to expand on that.In an interview in 2004 with Cecil Kippins a former International Test Umpire from Guyana he categorically said that without a doubt Hendriks was the best WI wicketkeeper ever.He also went on to say that when he saw Dujon,he asked why is this guy the wicketkeeper, since he felt he should be playing as a batsman and that wicketkeeping hampered his batting.Dujon ended up with a batting average of 31 which is well below where his batting ability suggested he should be averaging.In fact quite a few people had serious doubts about Dujon's wicketkeeping ability.His technique was not of the best but he made up for that with spectacular goalkeeping style catches which masked his deficiencies in technique.He did not drop too many catches is the retort of the masses and that is true.
Clive Lloyd also feels that Hendriks is the best as did the Late Basil Butcher,Lance Gibbs and many others.
My first memory of Jackie Hendriks was a match between Guyana and Jamaica at Bourda and Lester King was bowling to Winston English an all-rounder who was batting and he deliberately started batting outside his crease to unsettle the fast bowler. Hendriks seeing that went up to the wicket forcing English to get back in his crease.King then bowled a ball a little outside the leg stump and English tried to flick the ball and missed and off balance he stumbled forward and quick as a flash Hendriks had the bails off and English was stumped.
All the above information was given to me by Roy Fredericks many years later (1973) as I was a mere 11 years old watching the game with my transistor radio in my ear which told me that English was not bowled as I initially thought but that he was stumped.In the early 2000's I met Jackie Hendriks at a Wolmer's Alumni Luncheon where he along with Maurice Foster were being Honoured and I asked him if he remembers that stumping. He laughed and said of course and I told him I was there to see it live.

In reply to Dukes


was great for a wk of his time though. his batting average (31)is well above the wk's who would have played in the 80s. paul downton averages 19, saleem yosuf 25, jack russell 27, rod marsh 26 and even ian healy 27. but i agree with you, dujon's techniques wasn't the best, but the results were well above average. yes he had the best bowlers in the world but it could have not be easy keeping to bowlers, at least three of them who bowled sometimes in the very high 80s and many times 90mph and up. when espn cricinfo did their wi al time xi, hendriks was their wk

In reply to Jumpstart

The thread is looking for the best, not which era the best played.
Why is Don Bradman listed in every All-time team?

In reply to Dukes

Jackie played 20 tests, which is too small a sample to be considered representative of the best.
You asked me about Seymour, and I said the same.
More tests were played after the 1950s.

In reply to openning

for reasons other than cricket clearly...bradman played 37 tests against the english......and one series each against wi, SA and india and only played in two countries....his home and england

In reply to Dukes

No one is questioning whether Hendricks is the best glove man in WI history. I think that's well established that he is.

The question is does he make the all time XI as a keeper.

While Dujon is no way technically as skilled as Hendricks behind the stumps. His batting brings him into the conversation. Dujon was competent enough to play over 75 tests as a keeper. He played a few as a batman only. Dujon average 31 to Hendricks 18.

For me I am going with a very competent keeper who can contribute with the bat vs the better keeper who has lesser batting ability.

In reply to Jumpstart

If Don Bradman were from T&T, you would be jumping and waving, but respect should be given to every player, regardless of era.
Do you rate George Headley's contribution?
He will always be my opener in my Number one all-time test team.

In reply to openning
no i would not....at all.
george headley played 22 tests is never mentioned in a GOAT world xi. and for similar reasons, he only played 40 innings in 4 countries. Like bradman.....he never faced reverse swing, the four pronged pace attack, the doosra, the caromm ball, mass professionalization of the game...any of the major innovations that changed cricket at a fundamental level. greatest of their time certainly. but cricket before 1970 and after 1970 are two different sports. part of the reason sobers is revered the ways he is is because he conquered both the old cricketing world and the emerging new one symbolized by hell fire pacemen like Dennis Lillee

In reply to Jumpstart

That's your belief. I love history and the contributions of players in every era to the sport.
Can you imagine 50 years from now, and saying the same to the greatness of Sir Gary, Viv, Lara and others?

In reply to openning
uhhh yeah. test cricket has not changed that much, with the exception of bowling where pace bowling in particular has been disemboweled. people talk aboutt england scoring at 5 rpo in tests as if that never happened before.....and then i look at the scorecard for the second test of the wisden series of 1984 to show it did. Batsmen will still collapse in a heap when confronted by a truly nasty pace merchant as the example of england and australia showed between the end of 2013 and 2014, with only the very best surviving(ab de villears coming to mind)