One can argue, but the greatest team of all times in the history of cricket were the Caribbean kings, and the stats do speak for themselves. The West Indies team of the mid-1970s to mid-1990s were a force to reckon with. They won the game inaugural world cup of one day cricket in 1975 and then again in 1979.
They defeated the Aussies in their own backyard in the tour of 1979, winning the test series 2–0.
Then again, in 1984 and 1988 tours down under, they decimated the Aussies, winning the series 3–1, and not just that they were the first team to beat Pakistan in Pakistan in a test series ever.
They dominated the game of cricket like no one else with a formidable batting and bowling unit comprising of Sir Viv Richards, Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge, Clive Lloyd, Elvin Kalicharan, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall, Andrew Roberts, and Colin Croft.
The stats do speak for themselves from Feb 1980 to March 1995. The Calypso Kings were just unbeatable. In other words, they were invincible.
They didn't lose a single test series against its opponents during this period either on its home turf or in the overseas tours, against their arch-rivals England in 1984 tour they won the test series 5–0 this shows the temperament the resilience and the never die attitude of the Calypso Kings.
Now coming to the other teams who performed exceptionally after the fall of the Calypso Kings in cricket.
The team which performed very well after the fall of the West Indies in 1995 was the Aussies; they defeated the Windies team on their home turf, and this was also the first that the West Indies team lost a test series on its home turf since 1980.
Now looking at the performance of the Aussies, they were the invincibles from 1995 to 2007, winning three world cups consecutively from 1999 to 2007 in the ODI format itself and not just that they never lost a test series on their home turf since the West Indies team defeated the Aussies in the test series 2–1 in 1992–93 season.
Now comparing the performances of the greatest teams of test cricket, we can see that the Aussies never lost a test series for 16 years on its home turf from 1993 to 2009 these years; they defeated every team on its home turf. However, they still didn't manage to perform well in the Indian subcontinent, especially against India.
In the 1998 series, they lost the test series 2–1 against India, and then again in 2001 by 2–1; they lost the test series against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka in 1999, right after the world cup triumph. Not only this they were knocked out of the tournament of the champions trophy from 1998 until 2006 in the Odis winning the trophy twice in the year 2006 and 2009 respectively and then came the time in 2005 when they were finally defeated by their arch-rivals England in the ashes after a period of 18 years their first ashes loss since 1987.
The Aussies never won the ashes in England after their shock defeat in 2005.
The Australian team performed exceptionally well from 1995 to 2007 against their arch-rivals England, their trans-Tasmanian rivals the kiwis, the proteas, and windies during this period, but they failed to put a dent with their performance in the Indian subcontinent, winning just one test series each against India and Sri Lanka in 2004.
But if we compare the performances of the Calypso Kings and the Aussies, the Caribbean team of 1980 to 1995 never lost a test series either on its home turf or on the foreign land they performed exceptionally well be it the Indian subcontinent, down under, the English soil or in the land of the kiwis.
And above all, Calypso Kings was humble and gentle on and off the field and never found sledding or making racist comments on the opponents while playing.
In short, the West Indies team is the greatest team of cricket.
You must be logged in to post a comment.