Speed hails West Indies as greatest phenomenon in world team sport in twentieth century

ICC Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Speed on Friday night hailed the successes enjoyed by the West Indies cricket team for three decades from the early-1960s to the mid-1990s as the greatest phenomenon in world team sport in the twentieth century.

He acknowledged the claims of sides such as the Manchester United football team of the 1990s, the Chicago Bulls basketball side that included Michael Jordan and the New York Yankees line-up that dominated baseball after World War Two, amongst others.

But Mr Speed, delivering the Annual Sonny Ramadhin Distinguished Cricket Lecture at the University of the West Indies' St Augustine Campus in Trinidad and Tobago, argued the achievements of the 12 sovereign nations and other territories during a 30-year period represented a truly remarkable achievement.

Mr Speed said: "When assessing and comparing sporting excellence, it is necessary to put achievements into perspective (and) West Indies cricket faced and overcame huge obstacles.

"In modern history, (which) usually sees sovereign nations exerting their sovereignty and taking separate paths, the West Indies have stuck together, a great success story in itself, and it is a story that has embraced cultural, racial, political and financial barriers," he added.

"Cricket has adopted the unfortunate term 'minnow' to describe emerging countries but the success story of the West Indies saw a group of minnows combining against the odds to become a lion, the king of the sporting jungle.

"And that lion grew teeth and claws remarkably quickly. It won its first series in India in 1948/49 and then, in just one generation, went from new kids on the block to THE force in the cricketing world - now that is phenomenal."

Backing up his claim, Mr Speed justified it by saying: "What made the West Indies 'special' (and) why have I used the word 'phenomenon'?

"I suggest that to merit those words a team has to do something that literally changes the way the sport is perceived.

"It has to change the game and although many other sides in other sports have done so over relatively short periods of time, few if any can have done so for 30 years, as the West Indies did.

"The roots of rapid run-getting (in the modern game) are clearly in the flamboyance of the West Indies players, they were able to mount last innings chases against the clock and they not only won series but did so by record margins.

"They reinvented the game through their style of play with the ball as well as the bat with the four-pronged pace attack that many sides have since tried to copy but which none have emulated.

"And they reinvented the game on the training ground as well as the playing field by beginning the trend towards peak fitness that is now embraced by every side.

"The West Indies side of that era was the team everybody wanted to see, they brought crowds back to cricket and in so doing not only maintained the sport but popularized it."

Mr Speed also sought to examine how the side can once again rise to the top of the sport again, a generation after it lost its crown to Australia.

He welcomed the recent announcement of a task force to examine the structure of West Indies cricket and added his own thoughts to the mix when he said: "My recipe for renewed excellence of West Indies cricket is great governance and management, adapting positively to changes in the cricket environment, focusing on recruitment of first choice athletes and ensuring that the sport operates with a unified strategy and speaks with one voice.

"The game has changed and that changed environment creates great opportunities and challenges. The West Indies must respond positively and strongly to these challenges."

Mr Speed was the fourth person to deliver the Annual Sonny Ramadhin Distinguished Cricket Lecture, following in the footsteps of distinguished West Indies cricket writer and broadcaster Tony Cozier, Dr Ali Bacher, the former South Africa captain and Chief Executive of both South African cricket and the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 and former India captain Sunil Gavaskar.

A full transcript of Mr Speed's speech will be available over the weekend at each of the following locations: the ICC's website, www.icc-cricket.com; the ICC Cricket World Cup Media Information Service, www.icc-cricket.com/mis (password protected for accredited media - password available from robin.abrahams@wisdengroup.com); and the official website of the ICC Cricket World Cup, www.cricketworldcup.com