Photo Credit: Cricket West Indies
Five outstanding West Indies players have been named in the Teams of the Decade unveiled by the International Cricket Council earlier this week. Stafanie Taylor, the talismanic captain, was named in both the T20I and the ODI team. Deandra Dottin, the dynamic allrounder was named in the T20I side while Anisa Mohammed, the highly-successful off-spinner was named in the ODI team.
On the men’s side Chris Gayle, one of the game’s most sensational batsmen, and Kieron Pollard, the sensational power-hitter — were named in the T20I team. There were no men’s players in the ODI team or Test team.
Meanwhile, the ICC Cricketer-of-the-Decade award – aptly named after former West Indies all-rounder and legend Sir Garfield Sobers – was won by India’s outstanding batsman and captain Virat Kohli.
In the period under review beginning January 1, 2011, the left-handed Gayle scored 1,010 at an average of 32 with a single hundred – 100 not out against England in the 2016 T20 World Cup in India.
Pollard, meanwhile, played 56 T20 Internationals in the period under review, scoring 1 036 runs at an average of 30 and taking 26 wickets with his medium-paced bowling at an average of 23.
On the women’s side, Taylor has been rewarded for her consistency across both white-ball formats. The 29-year-old has averaged nearly 44 from 95 ODIs during the award period, scoring 3 561 runs along with three of her five career hundreds, while snaring 106 of her 142 career wickets at an average of 22. In T20s, Jamaican also impressed with an average of 35 in 90 appearances, taking 76 wickets with her off-spin.
Mohammed earned her place in the ICC side by taking 116 of her 151 wickets from 87 ODIs during the awards period, at just under 20 runs apiece. Dottin, perhaps one of the most feared batsmen in either format, scored 2 149 runs at an average of 25 with one hundred – an astonishing 67-ball knock against Sri Lanka in Antigua three years ago.
The 29-year-old, who bowls brisk medium pace, snapped up 55 of her 61 career wickets at an average of 16.
Name of Author: Cricket West Indies
Cricket West Indies (CWI) governs cricket across the West Indies, a confederation of Caribbean countries. Originally established as the West Indies Cricket Board of Control in the 1920s, it became the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) in 1996 and was rebranded as Cricket West Indies in May 2017 as part of a restructuring effort.
