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History of the West Indian cricket team

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Sports teams

                                                        History of cricket
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   The history of the West Indian cricket team begins in the 1890s, when
   the first representative sides were selected to play visiting English
   sides. Administered by the West Indies Cricket Board ("WICB"), and
   known colloquially as The Windies, the West Indies cricket team
   represents a sporting confederation of English-speaking Caribbean
   countries.

   The WICB joined the sport's international ruling body, the Imperial
   Cricket Council, in 1926, and played their first official international
   match, which in cricket is called a Test, in 1928. Although blessed
   with some great players in their early days as a Test nation, their
   successes remained sporadic until the 1960s, by which time the side had
   changed from a white-dominated to a black-dominated side. By the 1970s,
   the West Indies had a side recognised as unofficial world champions, a
   title they retained throughout the 1980s. During these glory years, the
   Windies were noted for their four-man fast bowling attack, backed up by
   some of the best batsmen in the world. The 1980s saw them set a
   then-record streak of 11 consecutive Test victories in 1984 and inflict
   two 5–0 "blackwashes" against the old enemy of England. Throughout the
   1990s and 2000s, however, West Indian cricket declined, in part due to
   the rise in popularity of basketball, athletics and soccer in West
   Indian countries, and the team today is struggling to regain its past
   glory.

   In their early days in the 1930s, the side represented the British
   colonies of the West Indies Federation plus British Guyana. The current
   side represents the now independent states of Antigua and Barbuda,
   Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis,
   Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago,
   and the British dependencies of Anguilla and Montserrat. National teams
   also exist for the various different islands, which, as they are all
   separate countries, very much keep their local identities and support
   their local favourites. These national teams take part in the West
   Indian first-class competition, the Carib Beer Cup (earlier known as
   the Busta Cup, Shell Shield and various other names). It is also common
   for other international teams to play the island teams for warm-up
   games before they take on the combined West Indies team.

Early tours

   The first international cricket played in the West Indies was between
   local, often predominantly white, sides and English tourists – the
   Middlesex player Slade Lucas toured Jamaica with a team in 1894-95, and
   two years later Arthur Priestley took a team to Barbados, Trinidad, and
   Jamaica, which included, for the first time, a match against a side
   styled "All West Indies", which the West Indians won. Lord Hawke's
   English team, including several English Test players, toured around the
   same time, playing Trinidad, Barbados and British Guiana (now Guyana).
   Then in 1900 the white Trinidadian Aucher Warner, the brother of future
   England captain Pelham Warner, led a touring side to England, but none
   of the matches on this tour were given first-class status. Two winters
   later, in 1901– 2, the Hampshire wicketkeeper Richard Bennett's XI went
   to the West Indies, and played three games against teams styled as the
   "West Indies", which the hosts won 2–1. In 1904– 5, Lord Brackley's XI
   toured the Caribbean – winning both its games against "West Indies".

   The tours to England continued in 1906 when Harold Austin led a West
   Indian side to England. His side played a number of county teams, and
   drew their game against an "England XI". However, that England XI only
   included one contemporary Test player – wicketkeeper Dick Lilley – and
   he had not been on England's most recent tour, their 1905–6 tour of
   South Africa. The Marylebone Cricket Club, which had taken over
   responsibility for arranging all official overseas England tours,
   visited Jamaica in 1910– 11, but after that there was no international
   cricket of any note until the West Indian team went to England in 1923.
   This tour did not include a game against an England team, but there was
   an end-of-season game against HDG Leveson-Gower's XI against a virtual
   England Test side at the Scarborough cricket festival, a traditional
   end-of-season game against a touring side at the English seaside resort
   of Scarborough, which Leveson-Gower's XI won by only four wickets.
   1925– 26 saw another short MCC tour of Jamaica.

   The MCC was eager to promote cricket throughout the British Empire, and
   on 31 May 1926 the West Indian Cricket Board, along with their New
   Zealand and Indian counterparts, was elected to the Imperial Cricket
   Conference (ICC), which previously consisted of the MCC and
   representatives of Australia and South Africa. Election to full
   membership of the ICC meant the West Indies could play official Test
   matches, which is the designation given to the most important
   international games, and the Windies became the fourth team actually to
   play a recognised Test match on 23 June 1928 when they took on England
   at Lord's in London. They did not, however, enjoy immediate success –
   the West Indies lost all three 3-day Tests in that 1928 tour by a long
   way, failing to score 250 runs in any of their six innings in that
   series. They also failed to dismiss England for under 350 runs in a
   series completely dominated by England.

The early Tests (1930s and 1940s)

   The West Indies team that toured Australia in 1930-31[21].
   Enlarge
   The West Indies team that toured Australia in 1930-31.

   The West Indies played 19 Tests in the 1930s in four series against
   England and one against Australia. The first four of these were played
   against an England team led by the Honourable Freddie Calthorpe that
   toured in 1929– 30. However, as Harold Gilligan was leading another
   English team to New Zealand at exactly the same time, this was not a
   full-strength England side. The series ended one-all, with the West
   Indies first ever Test victory being recorded on 26 February 1930. West
   Indians George Headley scored the most runs (703) in the rubber and
   Learie Constantine took the most wickets (18).

   The Windies toured Australia in 1930–31 . They lost the Test series
   4–1. The fifth and final Test showed some promise – batting first, the
   West Indies spent the first three days earning a 250-run lead with five
   wickets down in their second innings. A bold declaration was backed up
   by their bowlers, as Herman Griffith took four wickets and West Indies
   won by 30 runs to their first overseas Test victory. By the time the
   team left, they had left a good impression of themselves with the
   Australian public, although at first the team were faced with several
   cultural differences – for example, their hosts did not at first
   appreciate that the tourists' Roman Catholic beliefs would mean they
   would refuse to play golf on Sundays or engage in more ribald
   behaviour. The West Indian sides of the time were always led by white
   men, and the touring party to Australia comprised seven whites and
   eleven "natives", and the West Indian Board of Control wrote to their
   Australian counterparts saying "that all should reside at the same
   hotels". Australia at the time was implementing its " White Australia"
   policy, with the Australian Board having to guarantee to the Government
   that the non-whites would leave at the end of the tour. When the West
   Indians arrived in Sydney, the whites were immediately given a
   different hotel from the blacks. They complained, and thereafter their
   wishes were met. The tour lost a lot of money, part of which was down
   to the Great Depression then engulfing Australia. The West Indians won
   four and lost eight of their 14 first-class fixtures.

   1933 saw another tour of England. Their hosts had just come back from
   defeating Australia in the infamous Bodyline series, where England's
   aggressive bowling at the body with a legside field attracted much
   criticism. England won the three-Test series of three-day Tests against
   the Windies 2–0. The second, drawn, Test at Old Trafford, Manchester,
   provided an intriguing footnote to the Bodyline controversy when Manny
   Martindale and Learie Constantine bowled Bodyline – fast, short-pitched
   balls aimed at the body – against the Englishmen, the only time they
   faced it in international cricket. The tactic did not work, as Douglas
   Jardine, the English captain who ordered his players to bowl it against
   the Australians, did not flinch as he scored his only Test century,
   making 127 out of England's 374.
   Learie Constantine[28]
   Enlarge
   Learie Constantine

   Another England tour of the West Indies followed in 1934– 35. England
   won the first Test in Barbados on a poor pitch, affected by rain, and
   in a match where 309 runs were scored, England took a four-wicket
   victory. Both sides declared one of their innings closed to have their
   bowlers take advantage of the poor pitch. The second Test saw the
   Windies win by 217 runs, and a drawn third Test saw the series go to a
   decider at Sabina Park in Jamaica. A massive 270 not out from George
   Headley saw the Windies declare on 535 for 7. Despite a century from
   Les Ames, England could not avoid going down by an innings and 161 runs
   – the West Indies had secured their first Test series victory.

   The West Indies toured England in 1939. England won the first Test at
   Lord's easily by 8 wickets, then there was a rain-affected draw in
   Manchester, and finally a high-scoring draw at the Oval in mid-August.
   The highlight of the series for the West Indies was George Headley
   scoring hundreds in both innings in the Lord's Test. With the clouds of
   World War II seemingly about to envelope Europe, the rest of the tour
   was cancelled and the Windies returned home. They would play no more
   Tests until 21 January 1948 saw the start of the first Test the West
   Indies played since the War, which resulted in a draw against the MCC
   side from England. The second Test was also drawn, with George Carew
   and Andy Ganteaume both making centuries. Ganteaume was then dropped,
   ending with a Test average of 112 – the highest in Test history. The
   West Indies won the final two Tests chasing sub-100 totals, and wrapped
   up the series 2–0, their first away-series victory.

   In 1948, West Indies toured newly independent India for the first time
   for a five Test tour. The tour was preceded by a non-Test tour of
   Pakistan and followed by a similar short tour of Ceylon. After three
   high-scoring draws against the Indians, the West Indians wrapped up the
   fourth by an innings before a thrilling fifth Test, which left the
   Indians six runs away from victory with two wickets in hand as time ran
   out, so that the West Indies thus won the rubber 1–0. Carrying on from
   his hundred in the series against England, Everton Weekes set a record
   of scoring hundreds in five successive Test innings.

The Post-War period (1950s)

   1950 saw another tour of England, the series saw the emergence for the
   West Indies of their great spinning duo, Sonny Ramadhin and Alf
   Valentine. England won the first Test by 202 runs, but Valentine and
   Ramadhin's bowling would win the series for the visitors. The second
   Test saw the Windies put on 326 thanks to 106 from Allan Rae before
   Valentine (4 for 48) and Ramadhin (5 for 66) skittled England in the
   first innings. A mammoth 168 from Clyde Walcott saw England set a
   theoretical target of 601. Ramadhin's 6 for 86 and Valentine's 3 for 79
   dismissed the hosts for 274. The spinning duo took 12 wickets, Frank
   Worrell made 261 and Everton Weekes 129 as the third Test went the
   Windies way by 10 wickets, the fourth saw 14 wickets from Valentine and
   Ramadhin and centuries from Rae and Worrell as England were defeated by
   an innings. The West Indies won the series 3–1.

   In 1951– 52 the Windies visited Australia. The first Test saw a narrow
   defeat by three wickets, with the two spinners seemingly continuing
   their form with twelve wickets between them. The second Test was lost
   by seven wickets, as Australia replied to the Windies 362 and 290 with
   567 (which included centuries from Lindsay Hassett and Keith Miller)
   and 137 for 2. 6 wickets from Worrell in the third Test saw Australia
   dismissed for only 82, and the Windies eventually won by six wickets to
   pull back to two-one down in the series. The fourth Test saw the series
   lost in a narrow defeat. Worrell, batting with an injured hand, scored
   108 and helped the Windies to 272 before Australia made 216 in reply.
   203 from the Windies left Australia a target of 260. 5 wickets from
   Valentine helped reduced the Aussies to 222 for 9, 38 short with 1
   wicket remaining. It didn't happen, as some brilliant running between
   the wicket for Australia by Bill Johnston and Doug Ring saw West Indies
   lose their composure and the match. The fifth Test saw three batting
   collapses, as Australia (116 and 377) beat Windies (78 and 213) by 202
   runs to finish the rubber four-one winners. The West Indies then went
   on to New Zealand. In the first Test encounter between the two teams,
   the visitors to scored a five wicket victory. In the second and final
   Test, Allan Rae scored 99, Jeffrey Stollmeyer 152, Frank Worrell 100
   and Clyde Walcott 115 as the West Indies put on 546 for 6 declared.
   There wasn't enough time to bowl out the opposition twice though, as
   the hosts made 160 and were following-on at 17 for 1 when stumps were
   drawn, leaving the Windies series winners.

   The Indians toured at the beginning of 1953. The Windies won the second
   of the five Tests that were played, with the others all being draws.
   The highlight of these games we Frank Worrell's 237 in the fifth Test,
   where all the three W's scored hundreds, as the West Indies scored a
   1–0 series victory. Len Hutton led an MCC (England) side to the islands
   in 1953– 54. Sonny Ramadhin again starred for the Windies taking 23
   wickets (no other West Indian took more than 8), as Walcott's 698 runs
   was more than 200 higher than second-placed West Indian, Everton
   Weekes. The five match rubber was drawn two-all.

   Australia came and conquered in 1954– 55. After the Aussies made 515 in
   the first innings of the first Test, the Windies went down by 9
   wickets. Then the Windies 382 was put in the shade by 600 for 9
   declared by the visitors as the second Test was drawn. A low-scoring
   third Test saw Australia (257 and 133 for 2) beat the hosts (182 and
   207) by 8 wickets. After Australia scored 668 in the fourth Test, the
   series was lost, although a double century from captain Denis Atkinson
   and a world-record stand for the seventh wicket allowed the Windies to
   reach 510 and draw the Test. The fifth Test saw the West Indies win the
   toss and bat. Walcott's 155 was the highest score of their 357. The
   Australians then batted and batted, in total for 245.4 overs in the
   6-day Test, as they put on 758 for 8 declared, with five players making
   centuries. 319 in the West Indies' second innings left them defeated by
   an innings and 82 runs in the Test, and by three games to nil in the
   series. Walcott set records by scoring five hundreds, and hundreds in
   both innings of a match twice. A four-Test tour of New Zealand followed
   in February 1956. After two wins by an innings and one by 9 wickets,
   the Windies were surprised by the Kiwis in the fourth, dismissing them
   for 145 and 77 as they recorded their first ever Test win in their 45th
   Test.

   John Goddard returned to captain the West Indians for a five-Test tour
   of England in 1957, which was lost three-nil, with England having the
   better of the two draws. Then 1957– 58 Gerry Alexander led a team that
   defeated Pakistan three-one. It was in this series in Jamaica that
   Garry Sobers scored 365 not out to record what was then the highest
   score in Test match cricket. Alexander went on to lead the West Indies
   to a three-nil win over five Tests in India, and a two-one defeat to
   Pakistan in a three match rubber in the following winter. In 1959– 60
   he led as West Indies went down one-nil at home in a five-match series
   with England.

A period of mixed fortunes (1960s)

   Despite being a country where whites are a minority, until 1960 West
   Indies were always captained by white cricketers, though this was more
   social than racial discrimination. Throughout the fifties, social
   theorist CLR James, the increasingly political former cricketer Learie
   Constantine and others called for a black captain. Constantine himself
   had stood in for Jackie Grant in the field against England on the
   1937-38 tour, and George Headley captained the West Indies in the First
   Test against England in 1947-48 when the appointed, white captain, John
   Goddard was injured. However, no black was appointed as captain for a
   whole series until Frank Worrell was chosen to lead West Indies in
   their tour of Australia in 1960-61. In his three years as captain,
   Worrell moulded a bunch of talented but raw cricketers into the best
   team in the world.

   In 1960, Australia were the best team in the world but on their way
   down, while West Indies were on their way up. It so happened that when
   they met, the two teams were of almost equal strength. The result was a
   series that, along with the 2005 Ashes, has been recognised as one of
   the greatest of all time. The first Test in Brisbane was the first Test
   ever to end in a tie, which in cricket means the side batting last has
   been dismissed with scores level. The teams shared the next two Tests.
   In the fourth, Australia's last pair of Ken Mackay and Lindsay Kline
   played out the last 100 minutes of the match to earn a draw, while
   Australia won the final Test and the series by two wickets. One of the
   days of play was attended by a world-record crowd of 90,800. Such was
   the impression created by Worrell's team that the newly instituted
   trophy for the series between the two teams was named the Frank Worrell
   Trophy. Half a million people lined the streets of Melbourne to bid
   them a ticker-tape farewell.

   West Indies beat India 5–0 at home next year, and in 1963, they beat a
   fine English team by three matches to one. The Lord's Test of this
   series saw a famous finish. With two balls left, England needed six
   runs to win, and West Indies one wicket. The non-striker was Colin
   Cowdrey, who had his left arm in a sling, having fractured it earlier
   in the day. However, David Allen safely played out the last two balls
   and the match ended in a draw. Worrell retired at the end of the
   series. The selectors picked Garry Sobers to succeed him.

   Worrell did, however, serve as the team manager when West Indies hosted
   Australia in 1964–65. The matches against Australia were bitterly
   fought, with accusations about Charlie Griffith's action (he was
   accused of throwing, which is banned in the laws of cricket) and
   bouncer wars. The West Indies won this series 2–1 to be the unofficial
   world champions. Sobers was not as good at man-management as Worrell
   and cracks soon began to appear. Often it was his individual brilliance
   that made the difference between a win and a loss. Throughout the
   sixties, West Indies bowling was led by Wes Hall, Griffith, Lance Gibbs
   and Sobers himself. Hall and Griffith faded and then retired by the end
   of the decade, but WI could find no replacement for them till the
   mid-seventies.

   Sobers was at his best in England in 1966, scoring 722 runs and taking
   20 wickets in the five Tests. Three times he topped 150, and the 163*
   at Lord's turned a certain defeat into a near victory. West Indies won
   3–1. England toured the West Indies in 1967– 68 for a series that
   became noted for England's deliberate slow play. West Indies were
   forced to follow on in the first Test but saved it without difficulty.
   The second Test was played on an underprepared wicket at Kingston.
   England won an important toss and scored 376. The bounce of the wicket
   having become very uneven, West Indies collapsed to 143 and followed on
   again. On the fourth day in the second innings, a disputed decision led
   to a crowd riot, and the match had to be stopped for some time. In a
   curious decision, the West Indian Cricket Board (WICB) agreed to add a
   75-minute sixth day to compensate for the lost time. Sobers played an
   outstanding innings of 113 not out, which allowed West Indies to set
   England a target of 159 in 155 minutes. England just about saved the
   game, losing eight wickets for 68. In the fourth Test West Indies
   gained a first innings lead of 122 at Port-of-Spain, but with the
   second innings score at 92 for 2, Sobers, frustrated by England's slow
   over rates and wanting to give himself a chance, albeit a small one, to
   win, surprisingly declared the innings, a decision for which he was
   widely criticised at the time. England were set a target of 215 in 165
   minutes and they achieved it with 3 minutes to spare. West Indies made
   one last effort to win the final Test, but England drew it with only
   wicket left in their second innings. West Indies lost the series 0–1,
   the first defeat since 1960–61.

   Australia and Bill Lawry had their revenge in 1968– 69, when West
   Indies lost the series, which was played in Australia, 1–3. New Zealand
   managed to draw the series that followed, and then in 1969 West Indies
   were defeated 0–2 in England.

World dominance (1970s)

   West Indies' woes overflowed into the seventies. At home in 1970– 71,
   they lost to India for the first time. In the next year, a five Test
   series against New Zealand cricket team ended with no team coming close
   to winning one. The problem was that Sobers was the only world-class
   bowler in the side. A major find in the New Zealand series was Lawrence
   Rowe, who started off with a double century and century on his debut.
   Under Rohan Kanhai's captaincy, West Indies showed the first signs of
   revival. Australia won the closely fought 1972–73 series in the
   Caribbean by two Tests. With Sobers back – but Kanhai still the captain
   – West Indies defeated England 2–0 in 1973, which included a win by an
   innings and 226 runs at Lord's, their biggest win against England. The
   return series in West Indies ended 1–1, though the home team was the
   better side. Rowe continued his run scoring three centuries including a
   302 at Kingston. The final Test of this 1973–74 series marked the end
   of an era in West Indies cricket – it was the last Test of both Garry
   Sobers and Rohan Kanhai, and marked the emergence of fast bowler Andy
   Roberts.

   The new captain Clive Lloyd had made his first appearance in Test
   cricket in 1966 and had since become a fixture in the side. His
   avuncular, bespectacled appearance and a stoop near the shoulders
   masked the fact that was a very fine fielder, especially in the covers,
   and a devastating stroke player. Lloyd's first assignment was the tour
   of India in 1974– 75. West Indies won the first two Tests against India
   comfortably. Greenidge started his career with 107 and 93 on his debut.
   Richards failed in his first Test, but scored 192* in his second. India
   fought back to win the next two, but Lloyd hit 242* in the final Test
   to win the series.

   West Indies won the inaugural World Cup in England in 1975, defeating
   Australia in the final. Then in 1975–76 they toured Australia, only to
   lose 1–5 in the six-Test series, and then beat India at home two-one in
   a four Test series later that same winter. It was in 1975–76 that quick
   bowler Michael Holding made his debut. Colin Croft and Joel Garner made
   their debut the next year, and Malcolm Marshall two years after. In the
   span of about four years, West Indies brought together a bowling
   line-up of a quality that had rarely been seen before. The Indian tour
   saw the debut of Vivian Richards, arguably the finest West Indian
   batsman ever, and Gordon Greenidge, who joined a strong batting line-up
   that already included Alvin Kallicharran and opener Roy Fredericks in
   addition to Rowe and Lloyd. These players formed the nucleus of the
   side that became recognised as world Test match champions until the
   beginning of the 1990s.

   Next came a tour of England in 1976. In a TV interview before the
   series, English captain Tony Greig commented that the West Indies tend
   to do badly under pressure and that "we'll make them grovel". This
   comment, especially as it came from a South African-born player,
   touched a raw nerve of the West Indians. Throughout the series, the
   English batsmen were subjected to some very hostile bowling. After the
   first two Tests ended in draws, West Indies won the next three. Of the
   many heroes for West Indies, Richards stood out with 829 runs in four
   Tests. He hit 232 at Trent Bridge and 291 at the Oval. Greenidge scored
   three hundreds, two of which were on the difficult wicket at Old
   Trafford. Roberts and Holding shared 55 wickets between them, Holding's
   8 for 92 and 6 for 57 on the dead wicket at the Oval being a
   superlative effort.

   West Indies won a home series against a tough Pakistan side in 1976–
   77. A few months later, the World Series Cricket (WSC) controversy
   broke out. Most of the West Indian players signed up with Kerry Packer,
   an Australian TV magnate who was attempting to set up his own
   international cricket competition. The Australian team that toured West
   Indies the next year included no Packer players, but West Indies
   Cricket Board fielded a full-strength team under the argument that none
   of the West Indies players had refused to play, but disputes arose in
   the matter of payment and about the selection of certain players.
   Before the third Test, Lloyd resigned his captaincy. Within two days
   all the other WSC-contracted players also withdrew. Alvin Kallicharran
   captained the team for the remaining Tests of the series, which the
   Windies won three-one.

   WICB allowed the WSC players to appear in the 1979 World Cup, and the
   West Indies retained the title with little difficulty. By the end of
   1979, the WSC disputes were resolved. Kallicharran was deposed after
   losing a six-match series one-nil in India and Lloyd returned as
   captain for a tour against a full-strength Australia (where the Windies
   won two-nil, with one draw) and New Zealand. The latter tour was full
   of controversy. New Zealand won the first Test at Dunedin by one
   wicket, but West Indies were never happy with the umpiring. West Indian
   discontent boiled over the next Test at Christchurch. While running
   into bowl, Colin Croft deliberately shouldered the umpire Fred Goodall.
   When Goodall went to talk to Lloyd about Croft's behaviour, he had to
   walk all the way to meet the West Indian captain, as the latter did not
   move an inch from his position at the slips. After tea on the third
   day, West Indies refused to take the field unless Goodall was removed.
   They were persuaded to continue, and it took intense negotiations
   between the two boards to keep the tour on track. The Kiwis won the
   three match series after the second and third Tests ended in draws.

Dominance, Rebels and Blackwashes (1980s)

                                               WI Test series in the 1980s
                                                   SEASON Vs HOSTS P W L D
                                                  1979– 80 NZ NZ 3 0 1 2
                                                      1980 ENG ENG 5 1 0 4
                                                1980– 81 PAK PAK 4 1 0 3
                                                 1980– 81 ENG WI 4 2 0 2
                                                1981– 82 AUS AUS 3 1 1 1
                                                 1982– 83 IND WI 5 2 0 3
                                                1983– 84 IND IND 6 3 0 3
                                                 1983– 84 AUS WI 4 3 0 1
                                                      1984 ENG ENG 5 5 0 0
                                                1984– 85 AUS AUS 5 3 1 1
                                                 1983– 84 AUS WI 1 0 0 1
                                                  1984– 85 NZ WI 4 2 0 2
                                                 1985– 86 ENG WI 5 5 0 0
                                                1986– 87 PAK PAK 3 1 1 1
                                                  1986– 87 NZ NZ 3 1 1 1
                                                1987– 88 IND IND 4 1 1 2
                                                 1987– 88 PAK WI 3 1 1 1
                                                      1988 ENG ENG 5 4 0 1
                                                1988– 89 AUS AUS 5 3 1 1
                                                 1988– 89 IND WI 4 3 0 1
                                                 1989– 90 ENG WI 4 2 1 1
      After losing their first series of the 1980s in March 1980, the West
                 Indies went throughout the rest of the decade undefeated.

   The 1980s started with a one-nil victory away to England over five
   Tests, one-nil away to Pakistan over four Tests, two-nil home to
   England over four Tests and a one-all draw away to Australia. Then in
   1982–83, a West Indian rebel team toured apartheid South Africa. It was
   led by Lawrence Rowe and included prominent players like Alvin
   Kallicharran, Colin Croft, Collis King and Sylvester Clarke. WICB
   banned the players for life (which was later revoked), and some were
   refused entry back home. However, the rebels managed another tour the
   next year, which included most of the players of the original team.
   Despite this loss of talent, the official Windies side continued to
   dominate. In the period to 1985–86 they won every series they played,
   with their only notable defeat being in the one-day arena, when, to
   general surprise, they lost to India in the final of the 1983 World
   Cup. The winning streak included two five-nil victories over England in
   five-Test series, which became known as the blackwashes.

   During this streak the West Indian captain Lloyd retired from Test
   cricket at the end of the 1984–85 series against Australia. In total
   Lloyd had captained West Indies in 74 Test matches, winning 36 of them.
   Vivian Richards was Lloyd's successor, and continued the run of
   success. Meanwhile, a change of old guard was also happening. Joel
   Garner and Michael Holding had retired by 1987. A major find was Curtly
   Ambrose, who was as tall as Garner and as equally effective with the
   ball. Courtney Walsh, who made his first appearance in 1984, bowled
   with an action that resembled Holding. Ian Bishop also had a similar
   action, and was as good a bowler till injuries interrupted his career.
   Patrick Patterson was faster than all the rest, but had a short career.
   Marshall still was the finest fast bowler in the world. Batting was
   beginning to show signs of weakness. They also failed to qualify for
   the semifinal of the 1987 World Cup. By the end of the eighties, while
   still the best team in the world, they had lost the aura of
   invincibility that they had till the middle of the decade. Finding good
   replacements for senior players was again becoming a problem.

Fall from the top

   It was five more years before West Indies lost a series, but they had a
   number of close shaves. South Africa on their comeback played its first
   Test match in Bridgetown, a match which was attended by less than
   10,000 people because of a boycott. Needing 201 to win on the last day,
   South Africa reached 123 for 2 before Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh
   took the remaining wickets for 25 runs. In 1992– 93, West Indies
   defeated Australia by one run at Adelaide, where a loss could have cost
   them the series. In 1992, West Indies once again failed to qualify for
   the World Cup semifinal. Australia finally defeated West Indies 2–1 in
   1994– 95 to become the unofficial world champions of Test cricket. The
   1996 World Cup ended with a defeat in the semifinal, which forced
   Richie Richardson, who had taken over the captaincy from Richards in
   1991, to end his career. West Indies made their first-ever official
   tour to South Africa in 1998– 99. It ended in disaster, starting with
   player revolts and ending with a 0–5 defeat. The 1999 World Cup
   campaign ended in the group stages. The next year, England won a series
   against West Indies for the first time in thirty-one years. West Indies
   ended the decade with another 0–5 defeat in Australia.

   For most of the nineties and afterwards, the West Indian batting has
   been dominated by Brian Lara. He became a regular in the side after the
   retirement of Richards in 1991. Against England at Antigua 1993– 94, he
   scored 375 and broke Sobers' world record for the highest individual
   score in Test cricket. He continued his fine form for Warwickshire and
   hit seven first-class hundreds in eight innings. The last of these was
   a 501 not out against Durham, which improved upon Hanif Mohammad's
   thirty-five-year-old record as the highest score in first-class
   cricket. Bowling support was given by Curtly Ambrose and Courtney
   Walsh, the latter after setting a then world record of 519 wickets.
   However, these two were gone by 2001. The bowlers to follow had big
   shoes to fill (quite literally) and ultimately have not responded close
   to the level that Ambrose and Walsh have set. Despite the presence of
   some good batsmen like Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan,
   Brian Lara still remained the crucial figure of the side.

   After a two-nil defeat to New Zealand in 1999– 00, Lara was replaced as
   captain by Jimmy Adams, who initially enjoyed series wins against
   Zimbabwe and Pakistan, but a three-one defeat to England and a five-nil
   whitewash by Australia saw him replaced by Carl Hooper for the 2000– 01
   visit by South Africa. By the time Lara was restored to the captaincy
   in 2002– 03 series had been lost to South Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan,
   New Zealand and India. The only series win of note was against India
   (although Zimbabwe and Bangladesh were still beaten) as the West Indies
   plummeted to eighth place in the world-rankings, below all the other
   established Test nations.

   After losing his first series of his second captaincy period to
   world-champions Australia, Lara secured success against Sri Lanka and
   Zimbabwe, before another poor run saw three-nil defeats over four Tests
   against both South Africa and England, although the fourth Test against
   England was drawn after Lara posted a world-record individual Test
   score of 400 not out. The West Indies were then whitewashed four-nil in
   England. Lara's last act as captain was to win the 2004 ICC Champions
   Trophy, a one-day competition second only to the Cricket World Cup, at
   the Oval, London – a win that was a welcome surprise for the Caribbean
   which had just been hit by Hurricane Ivan.

   This joy was short-lived as a major dispute broke out in 2005 between
   the West Indian Players Association (WIPA) and the Cricket Board. The
   point of contention was the 'clause 5' of the tour contract which gave
   WICB the sole and exclusive right to arrange for sponsorship,
   advertising, licensing, merchandising and promotional activities
   relating to WICB or any WICB Team. Digicel were the sponsors of the
   West Indian Team, while most of the players had contracts with Cable &
   Wireless. This and a payment dispute meant the West Indies first
   announced a team absent Lara and a number of other leading West Indians
   for South Africa's visit in 2004– 05, leading to Shivnarine Chanderpaul
   becoming captain. Some of these players did, in the end, compete. The
   dispute had not been finally resolved, though, and rumbled on, leading
   to a second-string side being named for the tour of Sri Lanka in 2005.
   The dispute was not resolved until October 2005, when a full-strength
   side was finally named for the 2005–6 tour of Australia. It was on this
   tour that Brian Lara overtook Australian Allan Border as the highest
   run-scorer in Test match cricket but lost the series 0-3.

Tournament History

World Cup

     * 1975: Won
     * 1979: Won
     * 1983: Runners up
     * 1987: First round
     * 1992: 6th place
     * 1996: Semi Finals
     * 1999: First round
     * 2003: First round

ICC Champions Trophy

     * 2002: First round
     * 2004: Won

ICC Knockout

     * 1998: Runners up
     * 2000: First round

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