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Article: Books: Bowled over by the bankers heady heady - The Development of West Indies Cricket by Hilary McD. Beckles Pluto Press, 2 volumes: pounds 14.99 & pounds 13.99; 256pp & 208pp Did the IMF stump the once-great West Indians? Mike Marqusee gives his verdict and society
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- May 22, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1999 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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FOR THE best part of two decades, the West Indies dominated world
cricket with a power and panache that won them an army of supporters
beyond the Caribbean and outside the ranks of the West Indian
diaspora. Offended as Norman Tebbitt was by second-generation blacks
who backed the ancestral homeland against England, he could not even
begin to cope with the large numbers of English-born whites who
adopted the West Indies as their own and cheered as a succession of
great fast bowlers mowed down a generation of English batsmen.
But for lovers of West Indies cricket, the last few years have
been painful, as the former invincibles were humbled by Australia,