Bruce, where did you go to boarding school?

I really can’t see how a bowler as fine as Courtney Walsh could be left out of this “squad”, but try as I might I can’t find room for him.

Re Freud’s comment about small size, the jewel in the crown is Barbados: just 167 square miles in size, but it has produced Sobers, Worrell, Weekes, Walcott, Nurse, Marshall, Haynes, Greenidge, …

Information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Barbados_cricketers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbados

Maybe the Caribbean youths of West African heritage were lost to American & European sports – baseball, basketball, American football, association football, athletics. In most cases, these are explosive sports, requiring strength & power.

This left cricket largely in the hands of Asian Caribbean youths. Just a thought…..

In the first place I think Windies administrators, & possibly everyone in the Caribbean were guilty of complacency, or that fine feeling of hubris. There was also not a little hint of black superiority, as this was the time of many African & Caribbean countries gaining political independence (60s through 80s).

They simply thought great cricketers would continue to fall out of coconut trees. The second reason, if you believe the pundits, is American & European sports, whereby young Caribbean sportsmen saw a better future in baseball, basketball, American football, association football & of course, athletics.

Whichever way you look at it, considering the composite team I chose, & the quality of players who missed the cut, it’s a crying shame…..

They were at their best when they had no coaches. Their cricket was an expression of their character. They have the natural talent as shown by Barath and Bravo. Their coaches need to harness the natural talent and not change it to suit their own ideology. Gayle is a destabilising influence. he doesn’t much care for playing Test Cricket. They need someone who has real pride. Make young Ramdin the captain.

376 test wickets at 20.94, an unbelieveable average.

And he averaged almost 19 with the bat coming in at no. 8.

YET, as cricket in that area has continued to descend into farce over the last 15 years, it is the Sub-Continentals who have held on to their interest in the game and perobably saved West Indian cricket to some extent.

- How a cricketing team so diverse and hailing from such a small population could be so good defies logic. They produced 6 knights, names that stand above some of the best from Aus and England.