West Indies Ready To Give Thunder Down Under
BRISBANE: Alarm bells are ringing for the West Indies after they made an embarrassing start to their tour of Australia, losing their opening four-day match by 10 wickets to a young Cricket Australia XI in Brisbane.
A near full strength Windies line-up succumbed to a second string CA XI featuring six on first class debut and an average age of 21 ahead of the three-Test series against world No.2 Australia.
The last time Phil Simmons, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh walked off the WACA Ground in 1997, they would not have dared think they would be back together in Australia 18 years later still searching for the West Indies' next Test victory in this country. The Calypso Kings were in decline but few imagined they would fall so hard.
The great West Indian cricket dynasty of the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s produced some of the finest cricketers of the 20th century.
The elegant Rohan Kanhai was on the wane while Alvin Kallicharan, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Clive Lloyd, Vivian Richards and Richie Richardson paved the way for Brian Lara.
