ON THIS DAY
Follow UsIt’s said that one’s biggest success is the one that can’t be measured; perhaps that’s why Clive Lloyd is still regarded as the best captain that cricket has ever seen.
While his winning spree as the West Indies captain, the number of World Cup titles or the number of runs he scored are records that will be matched or broken someday, Lloyd’s aura to bring together 15 countries of cultural differences and give them something to cheer for life is an achievement that will forever be unmatched.
Clive Lloyd was born on August 31, 1944, in Guyana, making his debut as a 19-year-old for the native state. A 6’5” man, Lloyd was known to have strong shoulders and strong technique who could pace and spin with equal efficacy. He had made a memorable debut for the national side against India, where he had scored 78 and 82 in consecutive innings to lead his side to a win at the Brabourne Stadium.
A batsman who used heavy batsman to punch the ball with immense power and a followthrough, Lloyd destroyed bowlers with relative ease. Playing for Lancashire, Lloyd had scored a double century in just two hours against Glamorgan and was named the 1971 Wisden Cricketer of the Year for amassing 1600 runs for the county side with an average of 47.
Lloyd was already an established middle-order batsman for years before he was handed the West Indies captaincy in 1974-75. The huge responsibility didn’t affect his batting but it changed the way West Indies cricket team was perceived by the world forever.
West Indies was touring Australia in 1975-76 and the Australia pace duo of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson absolutely battered the visitors. Not only were the Caribbean batsmen beaten by the deliveries, but they would be knocked down on multiple occasions as well. Lloyd was one of the victims, when in the Perth Test match, he took one of Lillee’s bouncers to the jaw.
West Indies would lose the series 5-1 and Lloyd was among the very few West Indies batsmen who was successful in that series. Though he amassed 469 runs at an average of 46.90, that loss did leave a mark for the West Indies captain.
If that series had sparked a thought in Lloyd’s mind, it was a match against India in 1976 that had cemented the belief that West Indies needed a change in approach. Hosting India in the Port of Spain, West Indies bowlers had failed to defend 406 runs in 103 overs. West Indies were playing with two pacers and two spinners with the latter getting just four wickets.
After the match, Lloyd had famously asked his players, “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?”
West Indies had some of the best batsmen in their lineup in Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge, Larry Gomes, Viv Richards and Lloyd himself. What they lacked was artillery down the order and Lloyd’s decision to play with four out-and-out pacers provided them just that.
Hence, came in the four pace quartet of Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall and Andy Roberts. Lloyd wanted just one thing - to intimidate batsmen with super fast bowling that wasn’t seen before and his blend of giant and quirky pacers did exactly that.
A 6’8” Garner was known as the “Big Bird” as his balls seemed to drop as lightning from the clouds, while Holding’s impeccable bouncers were labelled as whispering death. A shorter Marshall compensated his lack of physical stature with clever fast bowling while the likes of Roberts and Colin Croft stepped in to get the job done just as effectively as the trio.
Following the loss to India in 1976, Lloyd would play 57 Test matches, winning 30 of them and losing only four. Lloyd had already led the side to the 1975 World Cup title and this menacing team won the 1979 title with relative ease. They had reached the final of the 1983 World Cup as well but were stopped by Kapil Dev’s Indian team.
Lloyd retired in 1986 after a brilliant career where he scored 19 Test centuries and one ODI century. He had amassed 7515 Test runs in 110 matches with an average of 46.68, and 1977 runs in 87 ODI matches.
