Clive Lloyd: The mastermind behind West Indiess domination of world cricket
Clive Lloyd, born August 31, 1944, was one of the most destructive batsmen of all time and one of the most successful and respected captains of West Indies. Arunabha Sengupta remembers the “Supercat” who perfected the West Indian system of world domination through relentless pace bowling.
Not quite the non-violent leader
Not often in cricket have we witnessed the police being summoned to curb on-field violence unleashed by a batsman. Yet, such was the sheer brutality of Clive Lloyd’s massive bat that a troubled old lady in Haslingden, Lancashire, feared for her safety whennearby windows were peppered and smashed by sailing cricket balls travelling at screaming rates. She called up the local constabulary and reported destruction of property.
But then, Lloyd was an exception. No one wielded a heavier bat in world cricket. Few in the worldused the willow better or hit the ball harder. And that was not the only charge of violence that were voiced against him in his cricketing days. Captain Clive Lloyd transformed the philosophy of West Indian cricket, turning a band of supremely talented, yet inconsistent happy-go-lucky cricketers into ruthless machinery for destruction. To do that,he followed the way of fastest and fearsome of bowlers running in one after the other in groups of four. Opponents were battered, bruised, blasted away. No team had been more successful and no captain since Douglas Jardine more criticised.
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