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Old August 28, 2011, 09:48 AM
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Navo Navo is offline
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Join Date: April 3, 2011
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The thing is, when Clive Lloyd put his foot down and demanded the right to choose the team he wanted, the West Indies were already a team on the ascendancy and had had a handful of world class players. In Fire in Babylon, they start the documentary in 1975 with their team being whitewashed in Australia, but as humiliating as that was for them, we can't forget that they had just won the first World Cup! All they needed to dominate in all forms of the game was some excellent fast bowlers and admittedly, Clive Lloyd himself was able to unearth and nurture many of them. India's situation is comparable but their star batsmen are all on the verge of retirement and even if they unearth some amazing bowlers, they will not be able to replicate the WI teams of the 70s and 80s.

The point is, Shakib does not have the same quality of players in his team or in reserve, and even the ones who show indications that they could be world class, need a lot of polishing, which a 24 year old still coming to terms with his game, is not in a position to do. It's also worth mentioning that Clive Lloyd was not the best player in his team but commanded respect, because he was a senior father figure. (Words from the movie) Shakib commands respect with his performances, but there is something still lacking about his presence. (I don't mean that in a bad way, many great batsmen and bowlers didn't have that)
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