What cricket means to West Indians (Part 7) Lloyd talks about leading the invincibles

Apr 16, 2020 Sports

---

In 2006 Lloyd spoke about the challenges of leading an almost invincible team.
“Many of the guys came to play with me for the first time but we managed to get them to understand what they represented and the importance of being professionals. We worked together as a team and it paid off.

As a captain you look for talent in a player, the way he approaches things, you look for his attitude. If you want to gain altitude you have to have the right attitude. A player has to have some skill or talent to get to the test level, you look for how he approaches the game and life in general because cricket is not only a sport,” Lloyd said.
Lloyd, who won 36 of his 76 tests as captain explained that his team did by themselves what the analysts are doing today.
“We studied the batsmen, how they played, how they got their runs. We sort of noted it down and worked in our mind exactly how to bowl and position our fielders. So we were doing what the computers do now and we did one to 11, not one to seven,” Lloyd added.
The former skipper said that in the 70s and 80s his fast bowlers had to also operate on slow tracks at times but said his bowlers were all tall and had the ability to exploit any condition. “That is why they were great; they could bowl on all types of pitches.”

Lloyd informed that a lot of his team’s success had to do with the pride of the people they represented.
“The pride is important. When you go to a firm to apply for a job, the most important question is what do you want to join this for?
The people who went before us created something for us, so we were joining a very elite band of people who made all West Indians proud and we wanted to do the same thing. Once you know where you came from you knew where you were going,” Lloyd stressed.
The bespectacled left-hander explained how he got great players to become even greater.
“They gradually got to that stage… they started out as ordinary players then gradually increased things because they became very professional. They played in England. As a professional in England you needed to be disciplined as you could be playing 17 days straight. So your attitude to life needed to be good,” said Lloyd.
When asked how he handled a player like Viv Richards, Lloyd responded by saying “He realized that we were all professionals too and that some of the guys were just as good. We had guys out there who just wanted to win and they were disciplined and professional enough to do it. Everybody was quite happy to play and we were all good friends, we were like a family.”
THE GLORY DAYS:
Determined to prove that the 1980 demise in New Zealand was more due to sub-standard umpiring than lack of ability of his team, Lloyd led from the front and, along with the young Haynes and Richards, scored centuries in the three-test 1980 series against England which his team won 1-nil to start their reign as heavyweight champions of the cricketing world. They did not lose a single series until Mark Taylor’s Australians won 2-1 in the 1995 series in the West Indies.
With Greenidge and Haynes firmly established as the game’s premier opening pair and Roberts, Holding, Marshall, Garner and Croft giving opposing batsmen countless nightmares, the rampaging West Indies were unbeatable during the 1980’s; winning a record 11 consecutive tests in 1984. Australia broke that record by winning 16 successive tests in 2000/2001.
The only blemish for the West Indies in the 1980’s was the shocking loss to India in the low scoring 1983 World Cup Final at Lords. West Indies were however unbeaten in 16 test series in the 1980s.
Another reason for the West Indies success apart from their magnificent fielding and hectic fitness programmes conducted by Australian trainer Dennis Waite was the batting of their Wicket Keeper Jeff Dujon. Dujon made his debut as a batsman (replacing Faoud Bacchus) in the 1981/82 tour to Australia and scored 41, 43, 44 and 48 in his first two test matches. He then made 51 and 0 not out in the next test when he took over the gloves from Barbadian David Murray.
The West Indies, now with a specialist batsman who was acrobatically efficient to the fast bowlers as wicketkeeper, white washed England 5-nill in the 1984 series in England and beat Australia 3-1 down under as the career of Lloyd (110 matches, 7,515 runs, H/S 242*, Ave.46.67, 100’s 19, 50’s 39) came to an end and Richards took over as captain.
Rebel West Indians embark on shocking tour to apartheid ruled South Africa
After promising much with his imperial stroke play, Rowe’s career faded and finally he decided to captain a rebel West Indies team to Apartheid ruled South Africa in 1983, effectively ending his test career.
Others like Alvin Kallicharran, Colin Croft, Collis King, Faoud Bacchus and Sylvester Clarke were also on the team to South Africa. The WICB banned the players (whom received gigantic sums of money for their participation) for life but this was later revoked. Most of the players on the original rebel team were among those who embarked on another tour to South Africa the next year. Despite the loss of talent the official West Indies side continued their dominance.
The players from Sri Lanka who went to South Africa were banned for life, while those from England received a three-year band.
In South Africa, the West Indians were afforded ‘honorary whites’ status and it is reported that they received as much US$30,000 to play cricket for a six-week period per year.
The Honorary white status gave sportsmen a licence to be white for the time they were engaged in sporting activities but reduces them to a lower status as soon as they leave the club’s premises.
The 16 players who went on the first rebel tour to South Africa were; Lawrence Rowe, Richard Austin, Everton Mattis, Herbert Chang, Ray Wynter, Alvin Greenidge, Emerson Trotman, Collis King, Franklyn Stephenson, Sylvester Clarke, David Murray, Ezra Moseley, Alvin Kallicharran, Colin Croft, Bernard Julien and Derek Parry. (Sean Devers)

---

---