Who’s the best cricketer to emerge from the West Indies?

To me it has to be Viv Richards, he was and will always be the best batsman ever! There was no fastball that sacred him, he was the best as those. He was also a good fielder and was not a bad spin-bowler either. Come on, the man never used a helmet! Is that bad#$#%$& or what?

i dont think he is, take a look at brian lara

Using the ICC average career Test ratings that Trinidaddy provided last week, Lara is slightly ahead of Sobers and Ambrose. Joel Garner is fourth with Viv fifth. My own vote, however, goes to Malcolm Marshall - my all time favourite cricketer.

I think it is Viv Richards too. His style of play is just too orthodox and that is what makes him better.

It’s not only about statistics and numbers, that’s boring. How many players can make you feel the excitement Viv Richards provokes? I would say that very few. Yeah, maybe if you only consider the overall numbers he is fifth all time, but he’s number one in many things, and one of these things is that there has never been a more exciting player than Viv Richards and that’s the truth.

Rohan Kanhai for me ....

Statistics are not boring, they fairest way to compare players over different eras. Your question asked who was the best cricketer not who was the most fun to watch or most exciting. And as to your second point about Viv being the most exciting player, that is simply an opinion, not fact or truth.

In your opening post you also made the point that Viv was the greatest player of fast bowling. He was actually a far better player of spin than pace. He averaged 39.82 against pace bowlers and 52.5 against spinners. For comparison, Walcott averaged 48.63 against quicks, Lara 46.24 and Sobers 40.02.

and Rohan's comparison as a pure Batsman  ?  :-\

Kanhai was an even better player of spin, averaging 60.33. He averaged an incredible 61.11 in the subcontinent.

Any discussion on Batsmanship of the W.I : must include the great Rohan Kanhai.

OR the argument is MOOT....