Perth, Australia, 1975: In the second innings of the second Test between Australia and West Indies, Dennis Lillee, Australia’s ace pace bowler delivered a menacing bouncer to Clive Lloyd, the captain of the visiting team. The ball crashed on Lloyd’s jaw after taking off from the pitch.
It was a blow, a searing blow. Although Lloyd overcame the pain and resumed batting and ended the series with 469 runs at an average of 46.90, that bouncer was forever etched in his mind.
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During that tour of West Indies in Australia in 1975-76, Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson breathed fire and the Australian pitches added fuel to the destructive bowling. Lloyd saw his batsmen getting beaten, bruised and knocked out by this fearsome pace battery in the series that Australia dominated and clinched 5-1.
The Windies Captain left Australia after accepting a humiliating defeat and learning a few life changing lessons.
Port of Spain, Trinidad, 1976: Till day four, the Test was firmly in West Indies’ hands. After securing a lead of 131 runs in the first innings, West Indies declared their second innings at 271 for six to allow their bowlers one and half days of time to dismantle India’s second innings.
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One day and 103 overs later, the Test came to end with India chasing a record score of 406 runs in the fourth innings of a Test. The Caribbean spinners managed to pick only four wickets in 103 overs and after the game in the dressing room, their captain, Lloyd famously asked his bowlers, “Gentlemen, I gave you 400 runs to bowl at and you failed to bowl out the opposition. How many runs must I give you in future to make sure that you get the wickets?”
The Test was lost but Lloyd had once again learned a lesson.
Two genuine pace bowlers is a must in Test cricket. Three is a luxury and four, pure mayhem. West Indies cricket team after 1976 was pure mayhem. The word ‘fast’ would perhaps be an understatement as Caribbean bowlers steamed in to bowl with their ferocious physical built which intimidated most batsmen.
With a height of 6ft 8 inches, the ‘Big Bird’ or Joel Garner’s appearance was enough to create fear among batsmen while Michael Holding’s quiet bowling action, better known as the whispering death, was followed by what was arguably the fastest bowling the game has ever seen.
On the contrary, Malcolm Marshall lacked the physique or the quirky bowling action but had a sharp brain that outwitted the best batsmen enabling him to wreck batting line ups. Sir Andy Roberts was different from these three as he kept his emotions in control but his bowling was as good as any other seamer.
These four, along with Colin Croft, formed what is regarded in cricket as the finest and the most ferocious pace bowling units of all times. And behind these terrorising bowlers was their captain Lloyd who experienced the wrath of pace bowling in Australia in 1976 and later witnessed the helplessness of his spinners.
The West Indies captain had decided his team would have the best pace artillery in the world. It led to the accumulation of four lethal and high-quality pace bowlers in the side who kept running in and bowling fast, stripping batsmen of all their glories and exposing their flaws.
The results were staggering. After India’s record chase in 1976, Lloyd captained West Indies for 57 Tests, winning 30 of them and losing four. Only four loses in 57 Tests. This was sensational as West Indies team of that era is remembered as the best team ever assembled in cricket and some pundits even claim it as the greatest team in any sport.
But this journey wasn’t a cakewalk. Having four pacers in the team had its own pitfalls. Over-rate was mostly slow and many criticised this strategy of aggressive bowling as contrary to sportsman spirit. Every time the four West Indian pacers took to the the field, there were questions raised. But the Caribbean skipper didn’t flinch. He kept attacking, kept muting batsmen and kept West Indies at the top through his strong beliefs and steel like determination.
If the bowlers degraded the opposite batsmen, then the West Indies batsmen tore apart the opposition bowlers. Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge, the openers, were run machines accumulating runs in all conditions. Larry Gomes was at times impossible to get out while Viv Richards, the original flamboyant and mass entertainer in cricket butchered bowlers with his bat and swag.
Their captain Lloyd was himself a force to reckon with. Strong shoulders that pumped enormous power and gifted timing meant the Guyanese batsmen smashed the cricket ball wherever he wished. He was known to pile huge scores and with an effective technique, he mastered spin as well as pace.
It was a stunning combination. The best pace artillery and a group of powerful and charismatic batsmen came together to make the West Indies the proud kings of cricket in the 70s and 80s.
Lloyd’s captaincy stands out on the record books but his biggest success is not in scorecards or statistics, it lies in binding together the 15 countries spread across 21,000 square kilometres in the Caribbean region. These countries which form the West Indies team are seldom united as they have cultural differences.
And this is where Lloyd’s legacy lies. This legendary captain united the West Indies and gave them a collective identity. These Caribbean nations with a history of slavery, poverty, and low-self-esteem screamed with joy as Lloyd’s men brought the cricketing world to their knees.
The success of Lloyd is in the fact that his team injected confidence and respect to these nations and offered them moments to cherish. These cricketers were invincible, but in the Caribbean, they were the heroes, idols, and superstars.
The bunch of raw and extremely talented cricketers, scattered across the tiny islands were assembled together, disciplined and were transformed into the best cricket team in the history of the game by the aura and charisma of Clive Lloyd, one of cricket’s finest captains.
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