‘Spinners never won matches in the Caribbean’ was the age-old adage in West Indies Cricket. The former West Indies pacer Andy Roberts advocated it. Perhaps it is the one of reasons why West Indies fails to keep spin tradition alive. It is equally regrettably to note the fact that the Caribbean cricket has not produced excellent spinners after Lance Gibbs.



Former off-spinner Lance Gibbs, who once took maximum number of test wickets (309), feels that West Indies has grossly failed to keep up spin tradition unlike other cricketing nations.



Gibbs explains that Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh have preserved the spin legacy left by former great players like Bishen Singh Bedi, Subhash Gupte and Erapallie Prasanna.



Lance Gibbs who retired in 1976 and held the distinction of being leading wicket taker in test cricket for six years before Dennis Lillee surpassed it in 1981 adopted the footmarks left by his predecessor Sony Ramdhin and Alf Valentine. Ever since that, things changed drastically. The young cricketers from Caribbean are more interested to enter into international arena as pacers. Spinners can also win the matches in West Indies. The young cricketers should come forward to adopt spin tradition. Otherwise, the Caribbean cricket would land itself in dismay eventually.



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