When West Indies played its first Test match at the WACA ground here in December 1975, an attack of Michael Holding, Andy Roberts and Keith Boyce destroyed Australia by an innings and 87 runs.
The Carribeans returned in 1984, with Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Holding and a young Courtney Walsh to shred Australia again, this time by an innings and 112 runs.
And on it went: Marshall, Walsh, Patrick Patterson, and Curtly Ambrose in ‘88; Ambrose, Walsh, and Ian Bishop in ‘93; Ambrose, Walsh and Bishop again in ‘97. Same result each time. For blindingly obvious reasons, West Indies never failed to win a Test match at the WACA for over two decades.
It is for equally obvious reasons that as the team prepares for its impending World Cup meeting with India at the same venue, it is without any feeling of superiority. Clive Lloyd was captain of that West Indies team in 1975 and as he returns to Perth, this time as Chairman of the WICB Selection Committee, he realises that a pace-bowling group of Jerome Taylor, Jason Holder, Andre Russell and Darren Sammy does not exactly induce fear.
“We’d love to have Roberts, Holding, Ambrose and Walsh but it doesn’t happen in any other country,” he said at the Murdoch University sports oval here on Monday. “We’ve had a little bit of a decline but we have one or two young players coming through and you’ll hear about them in another year or so.”
Lloyd was confident, though, that West Indies’ bowlers would be effective on the WACA surface. “The point is that we have a good bowling attack, good batsmen, and a good all-round side. If we bat, we have to make enough runs to win and defend. We do have the bowlers to do so. India has been playing well and we’ve been sporadic in our play but we’re hoping that this pitch will suit us quite well.,” he said.
Lloyd denied that West Indies, which has beaten Pakistan and Zimbabwe but lost to Ireland and South Africa, was overly reliant on Chris Gayle for runs. “I wouldn’t say that. Before Zimbabwe Gayle hadn’t really contributed. But it’s great whenever we get a good start with him,” he said.
Despite the absence of Darren Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo, the middle order was not a worry, Lloyd felt. “We bat to eight or nine; everybody from one to nine has done extremely well, posted big scores. So I don’t think we have any problem there. Once we bat to our potential we will do extremely well,” he said.
India’s strength had impressed him, Lloyd said. “They’ve won three out of three. So we can’t fault their bowling or their batting. India’s always a formidable side and they’ll continue to be so. But when you set a standard, people expect you to keep that standard all the time. India are doing well but I hope they don’t do too well on Friday.”
Sadly for Lloyd, he will have none of his erstwhile colleagues to call on.
