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By Veersen Bhoolai

vbhoolai@hotmail.com

August 25, 2019

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I don’t think it would surprise anyone that Roy Fredericks and Rohan Kanhai would open the batting for such a team. You have two brutal batsmen who could annihilate any bowling attack in the world.

 

Fredericks was a consistent batsman and a fantastic player of pace. During the WI 1975/76 tour of Australia whilst many of the WI batsmen struggled to come to terms with the pace attack of Lillee, Thompson and Costello, Fredericks refused to be bowed. The highlight of his tour would have been the Second Test at the WACA. Replying to an Australian first innings of 329, Fredericks took on all comers. The harder they bowled, the hard he came. Fredericks hit his century off 71 balls. The WI’s 200 came off 22 (eight ball) overs. He was eventually out for 169 consisting of 27 fours and a six.

 

A great exponent of the hook and a WI legend, he probably would have made his Test debut sooner were it not for the presence of Conrad Hunte and Seymour Nurse.

 

Kanahi (47.53) would  be the true utility player on this team, he could open, come lower down the order and could wicketkeep. Arguably Guyana’s greatest batsman, his 79 matches yielded 6 227 runs with 15 centuries and 28 half centuries. He had to play 13 Tests before he hit his maiden Test century but what a century it was, 256 vs India in Calcutta. It would remain his highest Test score. A batsman who managed to hold his own in three different decades competing with the likes of Everton Weekes; Frank Worrel; Collie Smith, Gary Sobers and his countrymen, Clive Lloyd, Basil Butcher and Alvin Kallicharan, unsatisfied with his form, he retired after the England tour of the WI in 1974.

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One of the few Guyanese to have surpassed Kanhai’s run total, Shivnarine Chanderpaul (51.37) was the backbone of the WI’s batting for 21 years. His contribution and value to the middle order during his tenure was invaluable to say the least. He

started off his Test career at 17 and despite his consistency, he seemed to score very few centuries. Surgery in 2000 to

remove a piece of floating bone in his foot seemed to solve the problem.

 

During the first five years of his career he managed just two Test centuries. However, post operation, he managed 15

centuries between 2002-2007. From 2002-2015 he managed centuries in every year except 2006 where he had a top score of

97* and his final year, where a loss of form saw him dropped.

 

His contribution to the team was even more evident after the retirement of Brian Lara when he had to shoulder the burden of the batting during the absence of Chris Gayle, Ramneresh Sarwan and Marlon Samuels for various reasons.

 

In 164 Tests, he managed 11 867 runs with 30 centuries and 66 half centuries. He was also useful as an ODI player as his average of 41.6 and 11 centuries indicate.

 

Basil Fitzherbert Butcher (43.11), like Kanhai and Alvin Kallicharan was one of many talents to come from that cricketing factory known as Port Mourant. He made his Test debut vs India in the first Test scoring 64 no in the second innings. Sixty in his next Test at Kanpur was followed by his maiden Test century, 103 at Eden Gardens. With Kanhai, they put on 217 for the fourth wicket. Ironically, Kanhai scored his maiden Test century in that innings as well. Already having passed a hundred, Kanhai scored 256. Butcher scored 101 in the next Test at Madras and then 70 in Delhi. He seemed a more than adequate replacement for the void left by the three Ws. He finished the Indian tour with 468 runs (51.92). He may not have been as flamboyant as Kanhai and Sobers but he was considered a man for a crisis with great powers of concentration, the Larry Gomes of his era.

 

Butcher like Kanhai had to contend with an amazing era of WI talent, a lack of consistency here and there led to him being dropped. However, his 41 Tests accumulated 3 104 runs with seven centuries and 16 half centuries. His top score being 209 no.

 

No passage about Butcher would be complete without mentioning the second Test vs Lords in 1963. He had failed in the First Test and the first innings at Lord’s. He was on the verge of being dropped. He came in at 15/2 and at the Lunch interval received a letter that his wife had had a miscarriage. He somehow carried on, eventually scoring 133 (17 fours, two sixes) in a WI total of 229. The next highest score was Frank Worrel, 33. In the end WI drew the Test with England at 228/9, Martin Cowdrey, batting with a broken left hand, leaving and returning to finish at 19 no. Butcher had scored 383 runs (47.17).

 

He continued throughout the sixties known for his temperament, surrounded by the more dashing figures such as, Kanhai, Sobers, Conrad Hunte and Seymour Nurse. THIS is the man you would want in such a Guyanese line up, the perfect complement to the flair of Kanhai and Kallicharran and the brute force of Fredericks and Clive Lloyd.

 

Alvin Kallicharran (44.43) was yet another talent off the Port Mourant production line. He started off hist Test career vs New Zealand (1973) with back to back tons, an even 100* in front of his countrymen in Georgetown in the Fourth Test and 101 in the next Test in POS.

He spent the rest of the decade wowing crowds around the world and by the late seventies was an important cog in an incredible batting line up. Kallicharan showed he could hit any shot in the book and against the most feared fast bowlers he seemed unfazed. This was never more apparent than when he faced Dennis Lillee at the 1975 World Cup in England. Playing in the group stage, Kallicharan joined Fredricks at the wicket with WI at 29/1 responding to an Australian total of 192. The pair put on 124 with Kallicharran scoring 78 off 83 deliveries. Kallicharran went berserk at one point hitting the last 10 deliveries bowled to him by Lillee for 35 runs, seven fours, a six and a single. Facing arguably the fastest bowler in the world, wearing no body armour, not even a hat and with the top two buttons of his shirt undone, he looked like some super cool gunslinger from the Wild West handling Lillee’s best with no sign of discomfort.

 

Captaining the WI during the Indian tour of ’78, it was obvious that leadership did not hinder his batting. He scored 538 runs (59.78) with a top score being 187 in the First Test at Mumbai.

 

Eventually, like any mortal, he suffered a loss of form in 1980, performing poorly against New Zealand and Pakistan. He played his last match for the WI in an ODI vs England at Kingstown on February 4, 1981, bowled for 2 by John Emburey. Not too long after, he accepted a contract to play in South Africa in violation of the Gleneagles Agreement, banning all sporting contact with that country because of their apartheid policies. The following year he led a Rebel team there as well. At 32, his career was effectively over.

 

There has often been a misconception that Kallicharran believed that the WI Selectors should have stuck with him due to the fact that when many players went to Australia in 1978 for the lure of Packer Cricket and the money that came with it, it was he  who stuck with the team Captaining them in times of strife. However, he put pay to this myth in a Television interview in Toronto in 1992. He made it very clear that during the Packer crisis, he was contracted to Warwickshire. If he had joined the Packer players, he would have lost his County contract and would have had to return to Guyana. As he did not wish to do so, he remained with Warwickshire.

 

Although many West Indians were disgusted by his decision to go to South Africa, quite a few believed that at 32, his best days were behind him and with the likes of Gus Logie, Everton Mattis and Carlisle Best, amongst others, waiting for their chance, he would not be missed. However, the diminutive Guyanese was far from over, he racked up over two thousand runs during the 1983 County season for Warwickshire, scoring eight centuries, with a best of 230 not out at Southport. He seemed to be on a rampage, at one point, scoring two centuries against Sussex, 182 and 115*. The undefeated 115 was indeed impressive when you consider that Imran Khan took 6 for 6 in the second innings with eight of Kallicharran’s teammates unable to get to double figures. Sadly, the Forbes Burnham regime at the time was controlling the Press in Guyana. Kallicharran seemed to be a taboo topic and incredibly many Guyanese were walking the streets even in 1984 still unaware of his County exploits the year before.

 

Clive Lloyd (46.67), a huge man with brute force and a big bat, boundaries seemed rather academic for Lloyd. He may have been overshadowed by some of the more flamboyant member of the WI team but his class and contribution cannot be argued. Making his Test debut vs India, Mumbai, 1966, he hit 82 and 78 no in a winning cause. When the English visited in 1967/68 he scored his first century on home soil, 118 at POS. A further 113 no in the Third Test in Barbados confirmed that he was no flash in the pan.

 

Lloyd would go on to command a regular place on the WI team for a little more than a decade and a half. He showed he was more than brute force when he patiently held multiple inning s together on the 1975/76 tour of Australia as the WI were hammered by the pace of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thompson. During the Second Test vs India at POS, in 1983, WI found themselves in the unaccustomed position of three wickets down for one run. He and homeboy, Larry Gomes, patiently put together a 235 run partnership with Lloyd contributing 143.

 

His final innings for the WI was fighting top score of 72 vs Australia 1984/85 as they were beaten by an innings and 55 runs in the Fifth Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The only Test they lost in the series. He amassed 7 515 runs in 110 Tests with 19 centuries and 39 half centuries. His top score was a mammoth 242* vs India at Bangalore in the Fifth Test, 1974/75.

 

Carl Hooper (36.46), may arguably have been Guyana’s most talented batsman. He was undoubtedly their greatest underachiever.

 

To the unknowing eye, his 102 Test, 5 762 runs, 13 centuries, 27 half centuries with a top score of 233 is certainly commendable in any era. However, the statistics do not reflect the poise, grace and dominance he exhibited at the wicket. Simply put, he was capable of so much more.

 

Making his FC debut for Guyana vs Barbados in the cauldron that is known as Kensington Oval, the nineteen year old scored 126. Coming in at 51/4, Guyana managed another 221 runs to finish at 271 with Hooper scoring just over 55 per cent. After just one FC innings, every cricket pundit in the Caribbean had their eye on him. He made his Test debut two years later vs India at Mumbai scoring 37. For the rest of the eighties and nineties he enthralled crowds around the world with his disdain and command of some of the game’s best bowlers. However, he just as equally frustrated them with his penchant for finding ways to get out after seemingly being in command.

 

With the departure of Larry Gomes; Viv Richards; Gordon Greenidge, Gus Logie and Desmond Haynes,  all within a decade, this allowed Hooper to certify a place in an already talented lineup including Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and James Adams. Undeniably one of the best WI players of spin during his era, he excelled against India and Pakistan in particular. In 19 Tests against the Indian, he amassed  1 357 runs (48.46) scoring five centuries and three half centuries. Against the Pakistanis he managed 998 runs (45.36) in 14 Tests, hitting four centuries and five half centuries. His best was 233 vs India in the First Test in front of his home crowd in Georgetown in 2002.

 

His FC batting stats, 339 matches, 23 034 runs (47.68), 69 centuries and 104 half centuries, give a better indication

of his talent. A decent off spinner as well, he picked up 114 Test wickets, his best match figures being 7/178; he

captured 555 FC wickets, with a Best Innings of 7/93.

 

He suffered a loss of form in the late nineties and surprisingly retired from Test Cricket, being quoted in the Press

that if the WICB wasn’t going to look after Carl Hooper then he would have to. Many assumed that with an outburst

like that, he would probably be persona non grata with the officials and that his Test career was effectively over.

However, two and a half years later, exhibiting great form and a wish to return to the Test fold, he was reinstated

and as Captain to boot.

 

He started to look like the Carl Hooper many believe he should have been. During 2001-2002, he scored 1 609 runs in 22 Test. He averaged 41.94 in 2001 and 49.78 in 2002, scoring four centuries and nine half centuries in that period. At 37, he was playing the best Test cricket of his life. Just a year later after a string of low scores at the World Cup and being replaced by Brian Lara as Captain, he again left the Test scene.

 

 His final FC game was for Lancashire vs Gloucestershire, scoring 77 and 43 no. With obviously a lot of cricket left in him, he chose to leave the County scene as he had Test cricket, on his own terms.

 

Robert Julian Christiani (26.35), was one of many West Indians whose greatness was mitigated by the Second World

War. Considered by many to be Guyana’s finest batsman during the first half of the twentieth century, he was also a

tidy wicketkeeper and useful off spinner. He came from a family that epitomized cricket. His older brother Cyril

played as wicketkeeper in all four Tests during the WI tour of England in 1935. He died of Malaria three years later.

Robert’s other two brothers, Ernest and Harry also represented (then British) Guyana at First Class level.

 

Considered unlucky at aged 19 not to be selected for the tour of England in 1939, he had to wait for World War II to be over and until 1948 to make his Test debut vs England in the First Test at Bridgetown. Having waited practically a decade for this moment, Christiani suffered the heartache of being trapped lbw by the Captain, Ken Cranston. Publications around the world, including cricinfo.com, have stated that a heartbroken Christiani, walked back to the Pavilion in tears. It is something that he vehemently denied to the Indo Caribbean World (a publication I worked for) in 1992.

 

Forced to bat between six and seven because of a team whose nucleus consisted of the three Ws, he  nevertheless, showed his ability on a number of occasions; the highlight being 107 vs vs India at Delhi during the 1948-49 tour. He finally left the game in 1954.

 

I had the pleasure of doing an interview with Christiani, at his home in 1992. I found him to be a modest gentleman who made it unequivocally clear that Sir Frank Worrel was the finest batsman of his time. He did however, state, that just before he migrated to Canada in the mid fifties, he had seen a youngster by the name of Gary Sobers, who might have been a bit comparable to Worrel.

 

Just a few years prior to Hooper’s arrival, it was Roger Harper (18.44), who was being touted as a future WI player and Captain. Great praise indeed, considering the plethora of talent at the time.

 

Captain of the WI Youth Team in 1982 which consisted of players such as Phil Simmons; (the late) Shirvan Pragg; David Williams (Trinidad); Courtney Walsh, Robert Haynes (Jamaica) and Andrew Jackman (Guyana), he had already made his FC debut three years earlier. The following year he was selected to play his first Test vs India at Kolkata. Not bad considering how many other talented spinners in the region had to toil despite their success to infiltrate an intimidating pace line up.

 

His Test debut was an inauspicious event, his eight overs yielded 0/16. He was out lbw to Kapil Dev for duck in the first innings. He never really had a chance to bowl in the second innings as Malcolm Marshall tore through the Indians (6/37) as they were bowled out for 90, losing by an innings and 46 runs.

 

However, he was in general a good allrounder, economical and was useful in giving the pacers a rest. He was included on the tour of England, the highlight for him being a haul of 6/57 in the second inning at Old Trafford.

 

Despite the proliferation of pace bowlers in the WI, Harper refused to be pushed to the side. His performances on the ’84 tour of England won him a contract with Northamptonshire. His highlight season being 1986, taking 62 wickets (26.93) with a top score of 234 vs Gloucestershire with 172 runs coming boundaries. He then led Guyana to the regional title in ’87, scoring two centuries in the process.

 

Despite losing his action in the late eighties, he persevered and continued playing for the WI until the mid nineties. His final match was an ODI vs Sri Lanka in POS in 1996, taking three wickets and getting caught behind for duck. He was still good enough to score 202 for Guyana in the regional tournament in that same year and take 6/24 – his best FC haul - vs the Windward Islands at Bourda.

 

His 25 Tests yielded just 533 runs and three half centuries and 46 wickets (28.06). Harper may never have emerged into a great all rounder for the WI but his FC stats of 200 matches, 7 480 (34.8), ten centuries and 36 half centuries, 565 wickets (29.97) indicate he was a player of some worth; in addition, he was the finest fielder (along with Gus Logie) of his era. You could do a lot worse than Roger Harper at number eight.

 

The selection of Colin Croft and Lance Gibbs, to round off the team was a no brainer, undoubtedly two of Guyana’s greatest bowlers.

 

Colin Croft was second to none during his peak. An incredible statement considering the plethora of fast bowling talent during his era. Making his Test debut vs Pakistan at Kensington, in March, 1977, he took 7/132; incredibly, he did even better at his next Test in POS, taking 8/29 in the First Innings, still a record for a WI fast bowler. His match figures in that Test of 9/95 would be a career best.

 

He continued to terrorize batsmen the world over as well as putting quite a few in the hospital. His final series was the 1981/82 tour of Australia. He took (by his standards) a paltry seven wickets at a very economical 2.61 in three matches. However, he did have to share the spoils with the likes of Joel Garner; Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Sylvester Clarke. Croft joined a rebel tour of South Africa later that year, effectively ending his FC future.

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Lance Gibbs is the most successful Guyanese bowler in history and easily in the top ten list of all time WI bowlers. Associated

with greatness from a young age as the older cousin of Clive Lloyd, he would become the second bowler and first spinner to

ever top 300 wickets, His 309 wickets (29.09) were taken at an incredible economy rate of 1.98. Even more impressive,

considering, he played into his early forties.

 

Gibbs made his FC debut for Guyana vs the visiting MCC at Bourda in 1954, taking two wickets. For the next few years he

continued to bamboozle the best batsmen of the region and it was no surprise when he was selected to play against Pakistan

in the POS Test, taking four wickets. In all, he played four Test matches in the series, heading the average with 17 wickets

(23.05).

 

He would go on to be one of the dominant spinners of the sixties, taking 174 wickets in 42 Tests. He started off the decade

with a bang. Playing in the last three Tests of the 1961/62 tour of Australia, he took 19 wickets (20.78). He took three wickets

off four balls in the Sydney Test and a hat trick in Adelaide. The legendary Sonny Ramadhin’s career was closing but it was

clear that the mantle was being taken up by the man from Demerara.

 

He accumulated 184 wickets in 42 Tests between ’61-69, cutting a swath through the world’s best batsmen. He was offered a contract with Warwickshire in 1967 and played for them until 1973. His highlight season was 1971, taking 131 wickets (18.89).

His absolute dominance that county season had him listed as a Wisden Cricketer of the year in the Almanac’s edition the

following year.

 

Gibbs played his last series during the 1975/76 tour of Australia, passing the 300 wicket mark and holding the world record for

five years until it was broken by Dennis Lillee. A great bowler, no one would ever mistake him for a batsman, averaging 6.97 in Tests and 8.95 in FC cricket. He never scored a half century in over 400 matches, Tests and FC combined.

 

 

 

 

 

• Roy Fredericks

• Rohan Kanhai

• Shivnarine Chanderpaul

• Basil Butcher

• Alvin Kallicharran

• Clive Lloyd

• Carl Hooper

• Robert Christiani

• Roger Harper

• Colin Croft

• Lance Gibbs

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Substitutes:

• Sheik Faoud Bacchus

• Leonard Baichan

• Ramnaresh  Sarwan

• Joseph Stanislaus Solomon

• Devendra Bishoo

 

 

Honourable mention: Bruce Pairaudeau; Clifford McWatt; Andrew Lyght; Andrew Jackman; Mark Harper; Steve Camacho; Clayton Lambert; Milton Pydana; Neil McGarrell, Narsingh Deonarine and Mahendra Nagamooto.

 

It is a pity that many of the cricketing world looked upon Faoud Bacchus (26.07) as nothing more than a flash in the pan. A gifted opening batsman, he started playing for Guyana whilst still a teenager. When the Australians toured the WI in 1978, he represented Guyana against them just before the Third Test, scoring 22 and13. Somehow those scores got him on the team for the Fourth and Fifth Tests. His two matches totaled 42 runs in four innings with a top score of 21.

 

Later that year with an exodus of players for the Packer dollars, Faoud was selected for the tour of India under the captaincy of Kallicharran. His performance early was fluctuant, however he did score 57 and 110 vs West Zone. The Selectors’ faith in him was repaid in the second Test, as he just missed out on his maiden Test century by four runs, bowled by Bishen Bedi for 96. During the next three Tests he had a number of low scores broken up by a 61 in the Second Innings of the Fifth Test.

 

However, it was in the Sixth and final encounter he made the cricketing world sit up and take notice as he hit a magnificent maiden Test century of 250 with 132 runs coming boundaries. The only way they could get him out was when he hit his wicket. Collectively the other batsmen contributed just 178 runs.

 

He had taken advantage of the void left by the Packer players. With Roy Fredericks no longer on the scene, he seemed set to follow in the footsteps of two other great Indo Guyanese predecessors, Kanhai and Kallicharran. Sadly, such was not the case. He scored just one half century in his next 16 innings. Two fellows by the name of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes then made it almost impossible for him to come back.

 

A fine season for Guyana during the 1983 Shell Shield saw him back in the mix. Selected to replace Gus Logie for the fourth Test vs India in Barbados, a cruel twist of fate saw him injure his hand just minutes before the game whilst warming up. Logie came in at the last moment and scored 130 and was selected for the following Test in Antigua. Bacchus played in the 1983 World Cup, then not yet 30, he put paid to his FC career by taking up a contract in South Africa.  He migrated to the USA years later and represented them in the ICC tournament in the mid nineties.

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Leonard Baichan (46.00), could have been the Joe Solomon or Larry Gomes of his era had it not been for bad some bad luck and a glut of batting talent.

 

Not many batsmen score a century on their Test debut and play only three matches but such was Baichan’s fate. A successful left handed opener, who in 1973 found himself struggling to make the

Guyanese team in the regional Shell Shield due to the presence of Roy Fredericks and Stephen Camacho, he was called in for the last match vs TT and scored 134 and 23*, Guyana winning the regional title under Kanhai.

 

Selected for the 1974/75 tour of India and Pakistan, Baichan started off with a bang scoring two centuries in his first two FC matches in India. He surely would have made his Test debut were it not for a car accident which left him injured an unable to play against the Indians. Ironically a back injury to Gordon Greenidge allowed him to come back into the team for the tour of Pakistan. He grasped the opportunity with both hands scoring his maiden century on his debut at Lahore.

 

Scoring 20 in the First Inning, he then hit 105* in the Second, Baichan showed  a studious manner that complemented the more aggressive tendencies of Fredricks, Kallicharran and Lloyd. He managed 36 and 0* in the Second.

 

After the 1975 WC held in England, Baichan was taken to Australia. Despite some good scores, he was in stiff competition with Gordon Greenidge. However, with Greenidge failing in the two Tests he played, Baichan was finally given a chance in the Sixth and final Test. He scored 3 and 20 and was never selected again.

 

It was not an easy time for any opener, in addition to Greenidge and Fredricks, he had to contend with an emerging Desmond Haynes and his countryman, Bacchus. He totaled 184 runs in his three Tests, however, three not outs gave him a healthy average of 46. His 4 504 runs in 63 FC matches (51.18) with a top score of 216* are indicative of a quality batsman.

 

There are many who would give a quizzical look at the exclusion of Ramnaresh Sarwan (40.01,) from the starting XI. And they would have a point. A prodigious talent, he formed the backbone of the WI middle order along with Brian Lara and Chanderpaul for almost a decade.

 

His 87 Tests, 5 842 runs, 15 Centuries and 31 half centuries is something most Test batsmen could only hope to aspire to. Sarwan was certainly no underachiever but most would agree that his talent suggested that he was capable of more. Making his Test debut at just 19, he scored 84 and 11* vs Pakistan at Bridgetown. He never really looked back, thrilling the world over with his footwork and powers of concentration. His best year would have been 2004 as he scored 1005 runs (50.25), three centuries and four half centuries in 12 Tests including 261* vs Bangladesh.

 

Between 2008-2009, he scored 1 456 runs in 16 Tests. He totaled six centuries and five half centuries with a career best of 291 vs England at Bridgetown (2009). He suffered a loss of form in 2011 and was understandably dropped. It was perhaps a bit cruel of the Selectors not to give a him a chance once he started scoring runs for Leicesterhsire in the County Championship. However, with talents such as the Bravo brothers, Kieron Pollard and Kraig Braithwaite, on the rise, a once stellar career was forced to experience an anticlimactic sputter.

 

Another Port Mourant product, Joe Solomon (34.00) like Butcher was considered a steady albeit unflamboyant figure in the middle. His talent was never in doubt as he scored centuries in his first three matches for Guyana against Jamaica, Barbados and later the visiting Pakistanis in 1958.

 

Not surprisingly, he was selected for the 1958/59 tour of India and Pakistan. He scored 45 and 86 on his Test debut vs the Indians and an unbeaten 69 in his second Test. He then scored his only Test century, 100* in the Fifth Test. He continued his form scoring two half centuries on the tour of Paksitan.

 

However, Solomon will be forever linked to the amazing tied Test in Australia (the first ever) in 1960. It was the First Test at Brisbane and with the Australians coming on strong in the Second Innings, they seemed well on their way to victory until two moment of brilliance by Solomon in the field. First, with just one stump to aim at, he had Alan Davidson run out. With one run needed off the last ball he then ran out Ian Meckiff in the same manner. It remains one of the greatest moments in Test history.

 

In 27 Tests he scored 1 326 runs, with one century and nine half centuries.

 

Devendra Bishoo is theoretically, the only players on this list who could still play for the WI. Within three years of making his FC debut in 2008, he was selected for the WI. He proved himself to be an economical spinner and excellent fieldsman. However, he lacked variety and seemed unable to handle the heavy workload given to him. Dropped in 2012 he forced his way back into the WI team three years later after several dominant performances in the regional tournament. He showed greater versatility with his deliveries and seemed to have improved with the bat.

 

He has had great success in ODI cricket as well as in the T-20 leagues around the world. Reasonably economical during his career, his Test average per wicket has been a bit wanting. His most successful year was 2016, taking 23 wickets (32.87) in six Tests. However, his 10/174 vs Pakistan in the First Test at Dubai (2016/2017) indicates that he was certainly of some use to the WI.

 

One Day Team

 

• Roy Fredericks

• Rohan Kanhai

• Clayton Lambert

• Alvin Kallicharran

• Ramanresh Sarwan

• Clive Lloyd

• Roger Harper

• Carl Hooper

• Devendra Bishoo

• Colin Croft

• Lance Gibbs

 

 

Substitutes: Shivnarine Chanderpaul; Faoud Bacchus; Milton Pydanna+, Devendra Bishoo and Mahendra Nagamootoo.

 

 

 

 

 

T20I Team

 

• Roy Fredericks

• Rohan Kanhai

• Clayton Lambert

• Alvin Kallicharran

• Ramanresh Sarwan

• Clive Lloyd

• Roger Harper

• Carl Hooper

• Devendra Bishoo

• Colin Croft

• Neil McGarrel

 

Substitutes: Narsing Deonarine, Milton Paydana, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Lance Gibbs and Mahendra Nagamootoo.

 

I shudder to think of any team having to rely on Croft’s or Gibbs’ batting a limited over fixture of any kind. However, in the ODIs, it’s hard to leave out Guyana’s greatest bowlers ever. The extremely deep batting lineup would simply have to carry the load. There is no doubt that both men would have shouldered the burden well regarding bowling.

 

Regarding the T-20 team, you would have to have five decent bowlers, Kallicharan and Sarwan could bowl a few if required and Neil McGarrel was a very underrated bowler for the WI. Clayton Lambert was a hard hitting batsman, good enough to score a century in both Test cricket and in an ODI. He would have reveled in today’s world of T-20 cricket.