Andy Roberts

Well, I mean, listen, we were all trying to be professionals.

So, you know, Andy Roberts, you know,

Malcolm

Marshall, Gordon Greenidge, you know, all those guys.

Mm.

Barry Richards, Andy Roberts, all these players were here.

And so it was almost like it was star-studded, and you knew the names of everybody, and as, if you were a kid like me who was obsessed with cricket, I'd watch every Sunday.

Mm.

And so you had a team that performed at such a level that, you know, to this day is still... regarded as the gold standard of what international cricket has been this far no definitely

and then moving on at number four you've gone with Sir Andy Roberts Roberts was the first Antiguan to play for West Indies and became one of the foundations of fast bowling culture that followed Roberts wasn't simply producing wickets he was helping teach and develop generations of fast bowlers in other words Marshall Ambrose Walsh and others weren't emerging in a vacuum there was coaching and cultural lineage Exactly.

I'm someone that's big on cricket history, on West Indian cricket history, New Orleans cricket history, Nevis cricket history.

And from everything I've heard from meeting the man, from knowing the man, you know, his performances aside, you look at what he was able to do in terms of teaching the next set of fast bowlers and it's always been widely regarded that Malcolm Marshall is probably the gold standard of fast bowling.

But the lessons he'd have learned from a Sir Andy Roberts, along with playing alongside, you know, some of the greatest bowlers that we ever talked about playing in, in, County teams year in year playing for Barbados that has produced some of the highest quality bowlers and cricketers that the world has ever seen.

You know, all of that was sort of cultivated and nurtured alongside someone like a Sir Andy Roberts that was able to, I guess... make make the pathway easier by some of the teachings that he would have given and he'd have done that to many a fast bowler that would have come through at that period of time and then you think about those lessons going back to those players respective islands and so strengthening each territory strengthening everywhere that he goes yeah you could see how quickly he has spread a wide net of knowledge based on his experiences in fast bowling.

So, yeah, you can't dispute what the man's contributions have meant for us in this program.

No, and not when you're reeling off the names that he influenced.

Ooh, let's see.

I mean, Andy Roberts.

I don't know how tall-

Is five-

...

Andy Roberts was.

No, he was not five foot eight.

Uh, is he five foot eight only?

Uh-huh

... of, like, if you look at the West Indies, they went from Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Colin Croft, to Co- Courtney Walsh, Ian Bishop, Curtly Ambrose.

Yep.

There aren't many teams who have ever done that before, right?

Do you know what I mean? Like, it's, it's, it's tough out there for the, for the...

I'm not sympathizing with Andy Roberts, uh, Andrew Robertson.

I can't stand him.

But just to be honest, it's like, it's not easy, is it?

Yeah, that's right.

Uh, Andy Roberts, the former West Indian fast bowler.

Hellishly terrifying.

Give me Andrew Simons.

One thing he said was, uh, he ...

I asked him, "Choose your greatest ever West Indies fast bowler." And he went for, after admitting that he loved Andy Roberts because he was his mate, and, uh, that was a bit biased.

He said, "Okay, I'll take the bias away, and I'll make the best ever West Indies bowler Malcolm Marshall."

Mm.