Cricinfo have named their best West Indies XI following readers votes and a panel of "experts". Their side is (in batting order) : Gordon Greenidge, Conrad Hunte, George Headley, Vivian Richards, Brian Lara, Garry Sobers, Jackie Hendriks, Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Curtly Ambrose, Lance Gibbs.
The readers XI omited Hunte and Hendricks and included Desmond Haynes and Jeff Dujon in their place.
I wouldn't have picked Hunte who was picked largely to captain the side one imagines and I wouldn't have replaced him with Haynes, because to my mind, there is one glaring omission. This side, dominated by five players from the all conquering eighties teams, needs the best captain and the best skipper the Windies ever fielded was Clive Lloyd. The bespectacled West Indies left hander - as some prefer to call him - was the reason the Calypso Kings got their crown.
So, out goes Hunte and Headley would open. Richards and Lara move up on spot but swap in the order and Lloyd comes in third wicket. Hendricks was a better keeper than Dujon and the latter's batting is unlikely to be needed very often behind that top six. I agree that Lance Gibbs must play (otherwise why pick Hendricks). Marshall and Ambrose stand out from the rest which include Holding, Roberts, Hall, Walsh and the Big Bird, Joel Garner ... again, most of them from the eighties group. I can't pick Holding over Roberts. Maybe I'm biased because I faced him in the nets but Roberts to me, like Marshall, was the complete fast bowler and also like Marshall, he could bowl and bowl and bowl. No emotion, no histrionics, just cold hard assassins.
Of course, then you have Sobers, the most versatile bowler in the history of the game. He slot in anywhere the skipper needed him. Not a bad attack!
Lango's team, therefore (in batting order): Gordon Greenidge, George Headley, Brian Lara, Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd (c), Gary Sobers, Jackie Hendricks, Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose, Andy Roberts, Lance Gibbs. My permanent 12th Man would be Roger Harper. He'd never play but what a sub fielder!
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Who would be a selector! Two teams without Worrall & Walcott?. However who could argue. Here is how to fill the MCG 5 days in a row. Your reasonable team V my eleven. Hunte, Hayne, Richardson, Rowe, Chanderpaul, Worrall, Dujon, Harper, Garner, Hall, Walsh. On the bench we can have Kanhai, Nurse, Kallicharan and Walcott. Al Bowlers have averages in the low to middle 20's except Harper who averages about the same as Gibbs and all batters are middle 40's or above. WOW let the imagination go wild.
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