Sir Clive Lloyd is, unarguably the greatest captain Test and ODI cricket, has ever seen. Few cricketers have inspired an entire generation of captains as Lloyd has. Captaining an international team might not be that difficult for say, an England or Australian team. Lloyd was the captain of the West Indies side which consisted of cricketers from various different countries like Guyana, TnT, Barbados, etc who came with their own set of baggage and cultural differences. History might point out that skipper Lloyd had players of the caliber of Sir Viv Richards, Holding, Marshal, Haynes, Greenidge and others. Talent and temper have an almost parallel growth and to Lloyd's credit, the team that he led was one of the most professional and well mannered sides.

Born in Georgetown, Guyana on August 31st 1944, the tall ( 6' 5") and slender Lloyd made his debut for his native state at the ripe age of 19. Soon enough he represented Haslingden in the Lancashire league in 1967. There was something that attracted the eyes of the talent spotters, for both Warwickshire and Lancashire wanted to sign him on. Finally, he made his debut for Lancashire in 1968, two years after he had made his debut for West Indies against India at Mumbai. In his first Test, he made 82 and 78 not out at Brabourne Stadium which was assisting the spinners. Batting with Sir Gary Sobers, he led his team to victory. Going back home, Lloyd notched up his first Test century at Trinidad against England which was instrumental in his team warding off defeat. He went on to score 18 more hundreds for his side and ended his Test career with 7515 runs in 110 Tests at an average of 46.67.

Lloyd was a prominent part of the West Indies middle order throughout the 70s. His batting style involved minimal usage of footwork and with a heavy bat, the long follow through generated power which was devastating for his opponents. He was known to annihilate the bowling line ups , especially in the county set up where he scored the then fastest double hundred against Glamorgan in exactly 2 hours. He was also named Wisden cricketer of the Year in 1971 solely on the back of 1600 runs scored for Lancashire at an average of 47.

It was not until the India tour of 1974-75 that he was handed over the captaincy. The additional burden had no effect on him whatsoever as the first Test in Bangalore saw Lloyd blasting a 100 in 85 balls and the fifth Test in Mumbai saw him bring up his career best 242. On the back of such strong performances, West Indies went on to win the series. His next assignment, the tour to Australia, however was not as successful as Lillee and Thomson led the home team to a 5-1 win. Lloyd's place as a batsman was never questioned as he was consistently scoring runs.

The royal spanking received at the hands of the Australians led Lloyd to bring about a change in his style of captaincy. He devised a strategy which was based on intimidating the opposition by employing tall fast bowlers who could move the ball at blurring speeds. Such a tactic gave birth to an entire generation of unplayable fast bowlers who were instrumental in West Indies ruling the official rankings up till the early 90s. Such a tactic had it's own share of drawbacks: Low over rates and claims of intimidation by opposing captains were quite common. But it certainly was a trendsetter in the way Test cricket began to be played. Lloyd went on to lead West Indies to successive World cup wins in 75 and 79; he scored a century in the finals of the 1975 WC. They were clear favorites to win for a third consecutive time in 83 until Kapil Dev's men stopped their unbeaten run.

After a fruitful international career of 20 years ended in 1986, Lloyd took an active interest in the management of the Guyana and West Indies teams. He was also an accomplished commentator, but his experience was put to good use by the ICC when he was made Match Referee in 1992 for the South Africa-India Test match at Durban. It was a new beginning for Lloyd as players looked up to him as a cricketing behemoth. He officiated in the infamous semi-final of the 1996 WC and awarded the match to Sri Lanka after the Kolkata crowd turned riotous and went out of control. However West Indies' continuous deterioration prompted him to become the team manager. Although he did not prefer an administrative job, a sense of duty drove him, but after three frustrating years, he resigned that job and resumed his duties of an ICC match referee. Recently in 2008, he was appointed the Chairman of ICC cricket committee when Sunil Gavaskar relinquished that spot.

Notable Facts

1) His eyes were damaged when he got into a fight in his early teens at school. Since then he wears spectacles

2) He was a useful right arm medium bowler and has 114 FC wickets to his name

3) He has been awarded the OBE and AO ( Knighted by England and Australia) for his services to the game which have inspired many

4) He is the cousin of famous West Indies spinner Lance Gibbs

5) His third offspring, Jason Lloyd is a goalkeeper for the Guyana national team.

By Siddharth Prabhakar