Know how West Indies captains performed in the World Cup

New Delhi: Most good cricket captains have also been inspirational and innovative thinkers. In fact, sometimes this quality has taken precedence over cricketing ability.India TV, in its series on captains of World Cup teams, takes a look at West Indies captains: The Caribbean Islands as a cricketing nation had its most glorious days from 1970s to 1980s. It had won two successive world cups including the inaugural one in 1975. The team was led by none other than the dashing batsman Clive Lloyd. It was his idea of using four fast bowlers rather than two fast and two spin bowlers to create an unrelenting pace attack.Clive Lloyd led from the front with a spectacular century in the final as West Indies defeated Australia by 17 runs to take the inaugural World Cup. Clive Lloyd's dream of making a hattrick of being the world champions was crushed by an Asian team which was still trying to establish itself as a cricketing power. The 1983 World cup in England was seen by many as the tournament of ‘surprises'. The underdogs of the tournament were proving to be tough for the favourites to play. Some cricket pundits say that it was the beginning of the slide for the West Indian cricket.In 1987 World Cup which was played for the first time in Indian subcontinent , the West Indies team was led by Vivian Richards who is also known as ‘ViV' . He was another greats who have played the game. In December 2002, he was chosen by Wisden as the greatest One Day International (ODI) batsman of all time, as well as the third greatest Test batsman of all time, after Sir Don Bradman and Sachin Tendulkar. It was a dismal performance by the Carribean team as it for the first time did not move ahead of the group stage in World Cup.The team had won three matches and had lost three matches and was unable to qualify for the next round on account of having winning less matches than Pakistan and England.The next edition of World Cup was played in 1992 and the West Indies team was being led by Richie Richardson who was a right hand batsman and a right hand-medium pace bowler.He has been a part of the West Indian cricket team for three world cups. The team finished on a dismal sixth position in a tournament which was played among nine teams. It was played on a round robin league format and the team won four matches and also lost four matches.Richie Richardson was once again made the skipper of the Caribbean team in 1996 when the World cup returned to Indian sub-continent as wills world Cup. The team performed very well as the playing conditions suited them and they were on of the semi finalist. The team was ultimately defeated by the eventual winners Australia in the semi-final.It was now the turn of the one of the greatest left handed batsman from the Caribbean Islands Brian Lara to take the charge of the team in the World Cup. But the prolific batsman was unable to take his team too far in the quadrennial event.Hooper holds the accolade of being the first cricketer in the world to have scored 5,000 runs, taken 100 wickets, held 100 catches and received 100 caps in both ODIs and Tests, a feat only matched since by Jacques Kallis.The team once again performed poorly and was not able to move ahead of the group stage. The team was placed at fifth position in Group B of the tournament.In 2007 the World cup was organized in the beautiful Caribbean islands for the first time and Brian Lara was reinstated as the skipper of team. A total of sixteen teams participated in the event and the host team was knocked out of the tournament in the second round after it finished in sixth position.The 2011 world cup was held once again in the Indian subcontinent and this time the Caribbean team was led by all rounder Darren Sammy. He is a right handed batsman and a right arm medium fast bowler.The West Indies team was grouped along with India in group b but once agin it was the same old story and the team could not progress beyond Knock –out stage where it was defeated by the Pakistan cricket team. The team will look to change its fortune in the next years ICC world cup which is going to be held in Australia and New Zealand . The team will once agin need some strike bowlers and batsman who can help their team to win the match on any given day