West Indies decline disappointing: Peter Toohey

West Indies decline disappointing: Peter Toohey

Former Australian middle-order batsman Peter Toohey has termed West Indies’ cricket as disappointing. He feels West Indies as cricketing team have lost its glory over a period of time. They were cricket heavyweights three decades ago. In a conversation with ABC News Online he said, “They [West Indies] went through a period from the late 70s to late 80s when they were pretty much unbeatable. Even in the mid 90s they were still a very good team. It’s disappointing to see the West Indies diminished [compared to] what they were 20 or 30 years ago.”  SCORECARD: Australia vs West Indies 2015-16, 2nd Test at Melbourne, Day 4

“I guess you can’t blame the players for that. Whether it’s to do with the world cricketing bodies making sure the West Indies stays strong by supporting them a bit more financially, I’m not sure.” Toohey, who played at the time of Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket feels that Packer has left a positive impact in the game particularly cricket at the grassroots level, “Whilst it attracted reasonable crowds, the players were getting very little out of cricket. So [World Series Cricket] brought professionalism into it. Kerry Packer, in my view, did a lot of really good things for cricket generally.”  Peter Toohey: The man who turned down Packer’s megabucks to serve Australian cricket

West Indies were a great force in the 1970s and 80s having some of the finest batsmen and bowlers in their ranks. However, with passage of time they lost their dominance over the gentleman’s game. Today, West indies is not even counted among the top four cricketing nations. READ: Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Colin Croft, Malcolm Marshall play together for the only time