The Caribbean has produced some of the most legendary cricketers in the history of the game so ranking the best West Indies stars of all time is a tough task, but here is our top five:
George Headley
Before the great West Indies teams of the 1970s and 1980s or the 1950s side featuring the three Ws – Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott – came the ace Jamaican batsman George Headley.
His Test career, interrupted by the Second World War, was restricted to 22 matches between 1930 and 1954 but he made the very most of his limited opportunities, scoring ten magnificent centuries.
Most of his batting heroics came against England, with 176 on his debut, 270 not out in his hometown Kingston in 1935, and centuries in both innings of the 1939 Lord’s Test.
Headley’s Test average of 60.83 puts him in the top five of that illustrious list and his son Ron (West Indies) and grandson Dean (England) also played Test cricket.
Sir Garfield Sobers
Often described as the greatest all-rounder of all time, Sir Garfield ‘Garry’ Sobers played the first of his 93 Test matches at the age of just 17, going on to score more than 8,000 runs as well as taking 235 wickets for the West Indies.
He was a sensational striker of the ball, hitting Glamorgan’s Malcolm Nash for six sixes in an over in a 1968 county game, and his innings of 365 not out against Pakistan in 1958 was the record individual Test score for almost 40 years.
Sobers was the complete cricketer: a brilliant batter, dynamic fielder and aggressive captain who was capable of bowling high-class seam or spin depending on conditions. Revered in Barbados and in Nottinghamshire, where he played from 1968 to 1974, he was knighted in 1975.
Sir Vivian Richards
Jamaican Twenty20 superstar Chris Gayle revels in the nickname ‘Universe Boss’ but the ‘Master Blaster’ Viv Richards was an even more fearsome West Indian batter.
Richards, who forged a fruitful partnership with his close friend Ian Botham at Somerset, was at the heart of the Windies’ rise to global dominance in the 1970s and 1980s, first playing under the captaincy of Clive Lloyd and later leading the team himself.
His batting emptied the bars and filled opposition bowlers’ hearts with dread and he averaged 50.23 in his 121 Test appearances.
Richards often saved his best performances for England, racking up 291 at The Oval and 232 at Trent Bridge on the 1976 tour, making a match-winning century in the 1979 World Cup final, and scoring a blistering 56-ball Test ton on his home island of Antigua in 1986.
Malcolm Marshall
As West Indies captains, Lloyd and Richards were blessed with an array of brilliant fast bowlers, including Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Andy Roberts, Patrick Patterson, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh.
Many observers regard Malcolm Marshall as the pick of the bunch and his pace, accuracy and skiddy bounce earned him 376 wickets in 81 Tests.
England bore the brunt of Marshall’s brilliance and he bowled some unplayable spells against them, taking 7-53 at Headingley in 1984 and 7-22 at Old Trafford four years later.
Brian Lara
Perhaps no batter since Don Bradman has had the insatiable appetite for runs of Brian Lara, who twice broke the record for the highest score in Test cricket, making 375 against England in Antigua in 1994 and reaching 400 not out against the same opponents at the same venue ten years later.
The Trinidadian left-hander also enjoyed an extraordinary spell at Warwickshire, where he made the highest-ever first-class score: an unbeaten 501 against Durham, having been dropped on 18.
But the statistics, no matter how jaw-dropping, only tell part of Lara’s story as his dashing strokeplay lit up grounds around the world.
His maiden Test century was a stunning 277 against Australia in Sydney and he also led the West Indies to a one-wicket win over the Aussies in Barbados, scoring an unbeaten 153 against Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill which is regarded as one of the great Test innings.
