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Awesome Wisden CricInfo staff - May 2, 2002
At 166 square miles, Barbados has a ratio of roughly one legend per 15 square miles. It's the hot spot for cricketing greatness. Challenor, Nurse, Worrell, Walcott, Hall, Marshall - they just keep coming. Their names stare at you from roundabouts and schools, their faces adorn walls of public buildings and five-dollar notes. Sir Everton Weekes is an illustrious son. Weekes played what Roy Gilchrist referred to as "sunshine cricket". He didn't just make runs, he hammered them, 4455 of them in Test cricket, at 58.61. One time, he hit centuries in five consecutive Tests. He is, also, as nice a great you could ever expect to meet. A kind, wise, grandfatherly figure, interested in you as much as you would be in him. At the Police Sports Club on an easy May Day, he has been asked to pick his all-time Barbados XI. Actually, it's not that hard. But what turns up is awesome. "Three openers," says Weekes, "Conrad Hunte, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes. But one would have to go. Gordon and Desmond, their unity lasted for so long. Not only the unity, but the actual performance was outstanding. They are regarded in many places as being the best opening pair ever. It will be very difficult to break up that pair." Sir Conrad will have to be content with being 12th man. Come to the middle. "The three Ws: you don't really need to explain why they should be going in." But there's the batting order to be considered. "If one of the openers got out early, I would prefer to see Clyde go in. He was very strong in defence, even though he was an attacking player. Then Frank can go 4, and I can go 5. Sir Garfield can come in 6, Seymour at 7." Seymour Nurse, that No. 7, averaged 47.60 and rounded off his Test career with a majestic 258. Not bad for depth. "Then you got the four fast bowlers – Wes Hall, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Charlie Griffith. Garry would bowl spin, medium-pace, and chinamen googlies – he is the utility man." It's about as beautiful a combination of pace, guile and sustained hostility that you can find. "I would ask Clyde to keep wicket. If I'm picking a XIII, there should be room there somewhere for a spinner. I'd pick David Holford." He didn't name a captain, but that post, presumably, would go to Frank Worrell, considered by most as the greatest of all West Indian captains. So here's Sir Everton Weekes's all-time Barbados XI then:
1 Gordon Greenidge (batting avge 44.72)
12 Conrad Hunte The mean of the Test averages of the specialist batsmen is 51.02, that of the bowlers is 24.20. They have flair, power, depth and exuberance. In fact, put together any other team from the rest of world, all eras included, and these boys would have a fighting chance. Not bad for a little speck in the Atlantic.
Rahul Bhattacharya is a staff writer with Wisden.com in India. His reports will appear here throughout the Test series.
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