Quote:It was Australia that dethroned the West Indies in 1995. They did more than just defeat them. Mark Taylor’s team entered the territory of their strongest adversary, roughed them up in front of their own baying crowds and inflicted crushing defeats in the home team’s two most impenetrable citadels, Kensington Oval in Barbados and Sabina Park in Jamaica.

And yet it was not only the Australians who defeated the West Indies. The West Indies also played a big role in their own demise. We, in the Caribbean, both fans and administrators alike, believed the dominance would never end. The thought was, that like trees in the spring, the team would automatically replenish itself when necessary; great pacemen would rise up to replace great pacemen and exciting stroke-players would emerge as soon as the old ones declined. There was a failure to notice that the conveyor belt delivering outstanding player after outstanding player, seemingly out of thin air, had slowed. And if it were indeed noticed there was a failure to do anything to sufficiently grease its wheels.

By that time Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose were already in their 30s, while Ian Bishop was stricken by serious back injury. However, with all due respect to Kenny and Winston Benjamin, there were no fast bowlers coming through who hinted they’d be capable replacements. The batting appeared to be in slightly better shape, as there was Richardson, Lara, Hooper and Jimmy Adams around with Chanderpaul up and coming. But a few years before the side had lost champions like Greenidge, Haynes, Richards and Dujon. Their replacements, for the most part, never proved adequate.