First decade without a great WI batsman

law of diminishing returns....50s we three Ws and sobers. 60s we had sobers, three Ws and Kanhai. 70s we had sobers, viv, greenidge, lloyd. 80s we had viv, lloyd, greenidge and haynes. 90s we had Lara and haynes. 2000-2010, we had lara and tiger. 2010-2020 we had tiger. i coiuld be wrong but im seeing a pattern here

In reply to Jumpstart

No Barvo??

In reply to Jumpstart
Great?
We een even got one good one based on averages

In reply to Jumpstart




I wonder where Gayle fit in in your narrative?

In reply to JoeGrine

Gayle was a very, very good batsman. All round. He just wasn’t a great in the test game(I am taking into account the two triple centuries)

In reply to Jumpstart

What is the difference between Gayle and Haynes? The former (average 42.18 ) had no stable partner, the latter (average 42.29) was part of arguably the most stable opening partnership in the history of the game. If Haynes is a Test great, then so is Gayle; if Gayle is a "very, very good batsman," then Haynes is a very, very good batsman.

I read in the comments of the report on bbc.com that since 1995 only 6 West Indies batsmen have averaged over 35 since 1995. That is over the last 30 years!
If this is so why are we surprised by these results?

West Indies GREAT batsmen, by averages:

Headley, Weekes, Sobers, Walcott, Lara, Chanderpaul, Richards & Worrell. * Davis only played 15 matches.

West Indies test match averages

In reply to JoeGrine

Please remind Jumpy that one of Gayle's triples was made on tour, and not just in the confines of West Indian standard cricket grounds.

In reply to Drapsey

gayle was becoming a great batsman no doubt. but his test career was interrupted by the Windward Islands hydra. he wasn't the same when he came back. just like sarwan wasn't the same when he returned

In reply to Jumpstart

Iam waiting on you to answer the question:

How can Desmond Haynes (ave. 42.29) be considered a Test great but Gayle (42.18 ) not be considered a great? Is (42.20) a threshold of sorts?

In reply to JoeGrine

different time. haynes played in the hardest era of cricket ever....only three openers averaged more than haynes(gavaskar, gooch and greenidge, only sunil averaged above 50 of that list). gayle's contemporaries had it a lot easier...hayden, sehwag, langer, andrew strauss, alistair cook and the average more. as i said, gayle was becoming a great batsman. from 2008 to 2010, he averaged over 50 twice and just under 40 once. but all that was aborted when the clowns from sammy's board pillaged the team and installed Ted Laso as skipper. i also remember the ugly man's role in that saga

In reply to Jumpstart

Thank you for your answer, however, when you start to extrapolate, you lose me. Gayle is only responsible for the era in which he played and in that era he was amongst the very best (Hayden, Strauss, Langer etc.).

Frankly, I don't think either are greats at Test (Gayle is a T20 galaxy player) BOTH are excellent Test openers and both are behind Hunte, Greenidge, and Fredericks for me.

In reply to JoeGrine

i still argue that gayle was approaching great status in test. the manner of his exile must have been mentally taxing, especially when what he was building was starting to bear fruit. maybe after 27 all out, people may realize the full ramifications of sammy's elevation.

In reply to Jumpstart

Sarwan is the last good batsman the region produced... If his career wasn't curtailed by injuries, his Avg. would've been in the upper 40s - 50s...

In reply to Cricket_101

his career wasn't curtailed by injuries..........stop rewriting history....it was struck a fatal blow by the ugly man whose tenure coincided with sammy's captaincy.

In reply to Jumpstart



By then his back injuries had already impeded his batting...

In reply to Cricket_101

again...rubbish. the year sarwan injured his back(2009), he scored 626 runs in one series versus england....and a back injury is not a fatal injury for a batsman, an express paceman yes, not a batsman. sarwan was the leading run scorer for the WI in the 2011 odi series versus india.....in 2011

In reply to Jumpstart
we can go on, on... am sticking to my option...

In reply to Cricket_101

well there are still some people who think the earth is flat, despite all evidence to the contrary, so i guess you're not that absurd