Top 5 players from Barbados
Barbados is one of the proudest cricketing regions in the Caribbean and Sunil Gavaskar once wrote that the Bajans take more pride in their local team's achievements than those of the West Indies.
The pride of the locals in the Barbados cricket team is quite understandable, considering the sort of cricketers that the island has produced over the course of its rich cricketing history. Some of the great West Indian teams of the past had a fair sprinkling of cricketers from Barbados and many of them went on to become extremely influential members of those teams.
Barbados has produced a glut of gifted cricketers throughout its history and here is a look at 5 of the best to have ever emerged from the island.
#5 Gordon Greenidge
During the 1970s and through the 1980s, the West Indies dominated world cricket like no other team have ever done, and one of the pillars of that team was Barbadian opening batsman Gordon Greenidge.
Greenidge grew up in England and honed his technique there. This allowed him to combine the technical correctness of the ideal opener with the attacking flair of typical Caribbean batsmanship.
He was difficult to dislodge and what made him even more dangerous was the fact that he could take on the best bowlers in the world once he was set. For instance, back in 1984, he helped West Indies chase down 344 in a single day by slamming 214 off 242 balls (29 fours, 2 sixes) at Lord's in 1984.
Greenidge had all the strokes in the book and was ruthless when presented with the short ball. He was a fearsome cutter, hooker and puller of the ball and many people felt he hit the ball harder than even Viv Richards. In a Test career spanning 108 matches, Greenidge scored 19 centuries and 34 half-centuries at an average of 44.72. In the 108 one day internationals that he played, he scored 11 centuries and 31 half-centuries at an average of 45.03.