Pitches in the West Indies
The West Indies tends to produce balanced pitches. Neither is the bounce too disconcerting nor is the movement extravagant.It also does not assist spin like the sub continent pitches and hence for quality batsman they could be batting paradises. However, bowlers who are willing to bend their backs find some assistance from these pitches. Pitches here have earned a reputation of helping the quicks somewhat mainly because of the era gone by when West Indies used to have some of the fastest bowlers in cricket and hence the pitches appeared to be faster than they are. Tall bowlers like Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Ian Bishop, Colin Croft, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh produced bounce and speed even on the most docile pitches that wreaked havoc to any side and they used to run through the line-up. However, some of the best batsmen have arisen from the Caribbean too, like Viv Richards, Gary Sobers, Desmond Haynes, George Headley, Clive Lloyd, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Rohan Kanhai, Chris Gayle and Brian Lara. Gary Sobers is generally considered the greatest all-rounder of all time. Spinners also have something in the pitches as they offer a little dust and cracks from fourth day onwards.