This article describes the history of West Indies cricket from 1971 to 1980.

The West Indies cricket team was in transition as the 1970s began and it suffered a humiliating series defeat on the 1975–76 tour of Australia. New captain Clive Lloyd was determined that such a defeat must never happen again and decided that the lessons of that tour must be learned. On the 1975–76 tour, the difference between the two teams was the aggressive pace bowling of Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee. Lloyd decided that West Indies must nurture its own pace battery to create similar havoc among its opponents. The emergence of Andy Roberts and Michael Holding at this time ensured that the first implementation of the new policy on the 1976 tour of England was a success. West Indies could still produce great batsmen too and few have been better than Viv Richards.

The combination of outstanding pace bowling and top-class batting enabled West Indies to dominate world cricket for more than 15 years until the 1990s.

Domestic cricket 1970–71 to 1980

Shell Shield winners

1970–71 season[1]

Trinidad and Tobago, captained by Joey Carew, retained their Shell Shield title. They beat Combined Islands and Barbados, and drew with Jamaica and Guyana.

The Beaumont Cup, a first-class knock-out competition competed for by North Trinidad, South Trinidad, Central Trinidad and East Trinidad, was retained by North Trinidad when the final between themselves and East Trinidad was drawn. This was the first season in which the competition had been expanded to four teams. From its inception in 1926, only North and South Trinidad had previously competed.

1970–71 Shell Shield Table

Position Team Played Won Lost DWF DLF Points
Pts 12 0 6 2
1 Trinidad and Tobago 4 2 0 1 1 32
2 Jamaica 4 2 0 0 2 28
3 Barbados 4 1 2 1 0 18
4 Guyana 4 0 1 2 1 14
5 Combined Islands 4 1 3 0 0 12

Note: DWF = drawn, won on first innings. LWF = drawn, lost on first innings.

Leading batsmen 1970–71

1970–71 West Indian cricket season – leading batsmen by average
Name Innings Runs Highest Average 100s
Sunil Gavaskar16116922097.415
Garry Sobers15889178*74.084
Dilip Sardesai1388321267.923
Richard de Souza93369567.200
Desmond Lewis136529665.200

Leading bowlers 1970–71

1970–71 West Indian cricket season – leading bowlers by average
Name Balls Maidens Runs Wickets Average
Norbert Phillip821362971717.47
Pascall Roberts1119713311620.68
Prince Bartholomew1290425932721.96
Uton Dowe1554547733323.42
John Shepherd1068454051723.82

Qualification: 10 or more wickets.

International tours 1970–71 to 1980

India 1970–71

India defeated West Indies by one match to nil, with four matches drawn. Their win came in the second Test, at Port-of-Spain. It was their first win in 25 Tests between the two countries. Sunil Gavaskar, aged twenty-one and in his first Test series, scored 774 runs in four Tests, at an average of 154.80. Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan took 22 wickets at 33.91.

New Zealand 1971–72

Australia 1972–73

England 1973–74

India 1975–76

Pakistan 1976–77

Australia 1977–78

References

  1. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1972 edition, pp. 976–978 and 922–944

Further reading

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