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

In reply to Arlo

A team that has Lara,Richards and Sobers needs a wicketkeeper who averages 31 to shore up the batting???????

In reply to Jumpstart


1. Why did Headley play only 22 Tests?
2. If Headley was a white man he would be the second name penciled in on any all-time XI.

In reply to openning

In reply to openning



REALLY????
Headley played 22 test matches but the Second World War took place when he was 30 years old and lasted 6 years and WI played their first test after the war 2 years later so he missed 8 years!!!!! He is considered a great batsman.
Nurse played 29 test matches.. The reason Nurse can not be considered great is that after 25 test matches he was averaging 39 with 3 test centuries. Bill Ponsford has a statue at the MCG yet he only played 29 test matches for Australia between 1924 and 1934 and is uniformly considered a great Australian batsman by Australians. Do you think Michael Clarke will have a statue at the MCG or SCG?????
BTW Ponsford never hit a six in test cricket!!!!!!!
Joe Root played 17 test matches last year whereas Sobers played no test matches in 1964 or 1970 and 1 test match in 1967.
Kallis played 166 test matches yet he played test cricket for 18 years while Sobers played 93 test matches in 20 years.

In reply to Dukes

Four tests later, he ended with 6 tons, including two doubles, one against Australia, with Simpson writing he felt sorry for the youngster when he walked to the wicket, he felt sorrier for my bowlers as his innings progressed, the next double was his final test in New Zealand.
As a fan of Seymour, I believed he retired too early, especially after just scoring a double.
I was playing school cricket during the early years of Jackie's career, as a wicketkeeper; he was never mentioned.
Neither Jerry Alexander nor Jackie Hendrik was the Keeper that youngsters wanted to emulate; it is strange to hear his name mentioned as one of the best.
The Wicket keeper that we youngsters love was Renford Pinnock.

In reply to openning



The reason you and your fellow teenagers loved Renford Pinnock had NOTHING to do with his technical wicketkeeping skills.

In reply to JoeGrine


hence why i told opening bradman's name in all time xi's has very little to do with cricket. sometimes they even try to fit in graham pollock and barry richards' names in all time xis and neither played 10 tests.

As a Lil boy in the 60's I heard tale after tale about Jackie Hendricks being WI's best ever keeper and that was right after the story-tellers remarked how good Deryck Murray was.

In reply to Dukes

It is not about a man averaging 31 shoring up the batting. It is about the best possible XI.

Hypothetically an all time WI XI would go up against an all time XI from other countries. Let take an all time Australian XI for example.

Australia All Time XI

A wicket keeper who can give runs at number 7 would be insurance if a great all time bowling line up makes early inroads in the great WI top 6. Also, a wicket keeper who can score runs can help to press home an advantage.

Adam Gilchrist is not the best gloveman in Australia history but his keeping competency combined with his batting gets him into the all time XI.

In recent times, lots of teams have opted for very competent keepers who were superior batters over the best gloveman.

When Dhoni was selected for India, he was not the best gloveman in India. When Gilchrist was selected for Austrailia he was not the best gloveman in Australia

Most recently Ben Foakes despite being the best gloveman in England was often overlooked in favor of Bairstow and Buttler as they were superior batters.

Currently India's keeper his Pant despite there being better glovemen (previously Saha, now Barrath).


So back to the point, it is not about a man averaging 31 shoring up a great top XI, it is about the best possible XI.

My question to you Dukes, would swapping out Hendricks for Dujon (or Walcott) make an all time WI team stronger?

In reply to Arlo

Any All-time team consist of the greats of the game.

In reply to Arlo

also an avg of 31 would have been the best among wicketkeepers in dujon's time.

In reply to Jumpstart

that is correct.

The question is who keeps. Hendricks or Dujon? or even Walcott.

In reply to Arlo

Personally, I would only include one person from an all time xi from before 1970: sobers. Cricket changed dramatically after the arrival of lillee and thomson, which was the catalyst for WSC and the four horsemen. that kind of pace and hostility didn't exist before 1970. As i said before, cricket changed fundamentally and even players from the early 70s, like gavaskar(check his record in the 1983 series imn WI and the return tour exclusive of the two dustbowls at chennai and bangalore) found it difficult to adjust. The only Indian in that entire series to master the west indies was the legendary and severely underrated Mohinder Jimmy Aramanth, who scored 598 runs in the Caribbean visit. I am not sure how any of the pre 1970 players would react to lillee, thomson and imran trying to knock their heads off. so being conservative, I'd go with Jeff Dujon. I remember imran speaking about WSC on an interview, and he said it was the first and only time he saw batsmen wo came in to WSC as greats wilt under the pace bowling barrage.



Dujon was born into that kind of test cricket.

In reply to Jumpstart



Not so sure bout Freddo....Freddo loved taking on fast bowling...one of Wi premiere bats against pace.

In reply to Jumpstart



When Viv Richards was asked who was the best bowler he faced in his career he said Denis Lillee.He was asked why he said that and he replied it was because Lillee was always at you regardless of the circumstances.
Garry Sobers when asked the same question said Freddie Trueman for exactly the same reason.However the records will showRichards only faced Lillee in Australia where the slowest wicket in Australia has bounce and carry whereas Sobers faced Trueman on slow wickets in England and the West Indies.Of course Sobers briefly faced Lillee as well when he was in the twilight of his career. Lillee dismissed him for a duck twice but Sobers hit a masterful 254 as well.
One of the reasons you can get away with mediocre wicketkeepers who are essentially batsmen who put on the gloves is that there are few top class spin bowlers in many teams.England and the West Indies can get away with mediocre keepers as they do not have big spinners of the ball.The most challenging tasks of a wicketkeeper is when you are up at the wicket to somebody turning the ball significantly and you have to be able to anticipate and read how the ball is going to turn and bounce.Many times there is no spin bowler or if there is it is Chase and Warrican who hardly turn the ball.

In reply to Arlo



Putting myself in Lance Gibbs shoes the answer to that question is obvious!!!!!
But then again maybe Gibbs would not be in your all-time West Indies team because his bowling average is 29 and his strike rate is 79!!!

Here is an anecdote, the veracity of which is uncertain

Lance was playing for Guyana and the Late Milton Pydanna was the keeper.Lance told Pye, he was going to bowl a few flighted deliveries and then will bowl a quicker straight ball just outside the leg stump and the batsman will overbalance and could be stumped.Lance then fired a quicker one down the leg side and lo and behold the ball hit Pydanna in the mouth.
A true story is Lance famously told a wicketkeeper named Jackman that he would never play for Guyana again after he dropped Sobers who had less than 20 off Gibbs and went on to score a double century.