A true statesman - Jonathan Agnew, BBC cricket correspondent

Clive Lloyd is one of cricket's true statesmen.

He is obviously best known for his role in bringing the West Indies team together in a very factional part of the world.

He got them playing as a team unit, fiercely proud of their region, who were feared and respected.

Yet at the same time he has been an absolute star for Lancashire.

My early cricketing years were spent marvelling at this incredibly athletic, graceful, loose-limbed left-handed batsman who could smash the ball all over the place.

He was the first prowler in the covers; a beautiful mover who could pick the ball up with one hand and throw it at the stumps.

He is cricket through and through.


The same crowds who cheered Best, Law and Charlton at Manchester United in the winter brought football-style chants to cricket when Lloyd batted at the other Old Trafford in the summer.

The team won three successive Gillette Cup finals and two successive Sunday league titles with Lloyd scoring a memorable 126 in the 1972 Gillette final against Warwickshire.

Ex-Lancashire player John Abrahams, who captained the county in the 1980s, said: "I made my debut in 1973 and Lancashire were a team of stars. Clive was very good to me taking me under his wing in a very informal way.

"As a batsman he changed the face of the game - there was a real buzz around the ground when he came into bat.

"He hit shots the rest of us could only dream of playing."