Only 5 all rounders? Amazing! I racked my brain, and the following came up. Malcolm Marshall? Bernard Julien? John Goddard? David Holford?

Maybe Marshall - but, if you are not admitting Viv Richards in (master batsman, passable bowler) then Marshall (master bowler, passable batsman) cannot get a look in either.

Racked my brain on Indian all rounders after that. Came up with Lala Amarnath, Kapil Dev, Vinoo Mankad, Polly Umrigar,Ravi Shastri as possibly sure entrants into the list. And then - Chandu Borde, Bapu Nadkarni, Madan Lal, Roger Binny, Eknath Solkar, Rusi Surti, M L Jaisimha, ...maybe Harbhajan Singh, the way he has batted very recently! But all very iffy.

Who all have I missed?

Cad

although he is a refreshing addition to looming west indies side, but he didnt look gentle while being "over" for missed chances, appeals etc
anyway better to have him

You may add Salim Durrani and Manoj Prabhakar who were genuine all rounders for India

Roger Harper must be considered an allrounder of sorts he had first class 200's if im not mistaken.
Sure at TEST and ODI level his stats don't stack up. Never the less an all-rounder. I thought Hendy Bryan had potential i don't know where hes gone must be old by now.

"Under the indolent leadership of the somnambulistic Gayle" - isn't that a trifle harsh on the poor man? I thought he was doing a rather good job :) I agree with much of what you say though....looking forward to seeing what Bravo can do in the year(s) ahead.

How about Keith Boyce? He and Julien would probably be in the same bracket. And wasn't Collie Smith, the man who died in a car accident which involved Sobers, supposed to be an allrounder of some repute himself? And there's the 'rebel' Franklyn Stephenson, who played in South Africa. Sobers notwithstanding, he was probably the all-round great the Windies never had.

Re HL Cadambi: You missed Manoj Prabhakar. Perhaps Dattu Phadkar and Karsan Ghavri might also ake the list? And there's Salim Durrani too.

Decent article ... as a huge Windies fan, have often thought about why the team that gave the game the greatest allrounder of them all in Sobers has generally been deficit in this department. In 26 years of following the game, Bravo has definitely come closest to fitting the allrounder role and it's great to see him back.

I agree with Cad that there are some glaring omissions though ... most criminal of which is O'Neil "Collie" Smith (whose tragic death at age 26 curtailled a potentially glorious career) ... others include sporadically brilliant talents like Keith Boyce, Franklyn Stephenson and the afore-mentioned Bernard Julien, or the more sedate pair of Denis Atkinson and John Goddard.

Brovo Dawyne, while Bravo is good for WI cricket it is also good for world cricket in terms of excitement. Good article by my favorite writer, Mike. In response to Biny please give a feed back on Bravo and WI allrounders since the article was centered on Bravo and WI allrounders and not Durani and Prabakar, leave comments for Indian cricket and their cricketers for a separate article. Biny the article is centered around Brave and WI so give your comments to Mike about the article at hand

Good article with some knowledgable comments.
Joe Solomon and Keith Arthurton were considered all-rounders on their respective teams.

The article was about Bravo and windies allrounders and not how many any other country might or might not have produce, However, apart from australia the windies is the only other team at this point in time that can genuinely claim to have ever dominated WORLD CRICKET. Therefore, at the end of the day,it doesn't matter if Bravo was only the second allrounder in 100 years. Bravo to him!

Bravo is a more than decent all rounder for West indies.On his day can b a match-winner.But i honestly believe WI should opt for Dwayne Smith in place of Pollard or Sammy to further enhance the chances of becoming a consistent performing squad.

A pretty good assessment of Dwayne Bravo's value to the West Indies side,and a refreshingly even perspective by Mike...who still cannot resist the sideswipe at Gayle,however.As others have pointed out,some important West Indian all rounders not mentioned,including Frank Worrell,who was a better than useful bowler.

[Mike: Read the list of 5 all-rounders again, Ken.]

I am not too familiar with all allrounders who played for WI but as far as Indian list of allrounders are concerned, I would list them like this: Lala Amarnath,Vinoo Mankad,Polly Umrigar Salim Durrani,Syed Abid Ali,Eknath Solkar, Kapil Dev,Manoj Prabhakar, Ravi Shastri, Robin Singh. Others like Jaisimha,Bapu Nadkarni,Rusi surti, Venkat,Ghavri,Madanlal,Roger Binny, Srinath,Kumble,Krish Sreekant,Tendulkar Harbhajan, Sehwag, Zaheer, Yuvraj are either bowlers or batsmen who can do the other way around a little bit, this list should include wicketkeepers too like Engineer, Kirmani, Budhi Kunderan, More, Mongia etc. If I am right the real definition of an allrounder who does bowl good, bat good, and field good.On this criteria only three can be called real alrounders, they are Syed Abid Ali,Eknath Solkar, Kapil Dev.

I also think that Bravo is a good player but lets not forget about Jerome Tayelor who is coming into his own. Bravo is a natural allrounder but Taylor has showed that with a bit more experience and mayb batting a bit earlier in the order he might become one of the best

In his book 'One More Over" former India off-spinner EAS Prasanna states the only true all-rounders India has produced are Vinoo Mankad and Salim Durrani. Kapil Dev began his international career after the book was published and Kapil would be the third genuine all-rounder from India. As Prasanna states in his book several utility players are described incorrectly as all-rounders. This is not to undermine the contributions of utility players such as Eknath Solkar, Madanlal, Roger Binny and other who have contributed in such rich measure through their batting/bowling/fielding. By definition, an all-rounder must be a player who could be selected to a team on the basis of his batting or bowling alone- he should be able to pass muster as a specialist batsman and as a specialist bowler. Obviously, this is a select list - Imran, Mankad, Kapil, Sobers, Hadlee, Botham and a few others.

While listing Indian all rounders most people missed two genuine ones viz. Dattu Phadkar and Amar Singh. Phadkar was a pacy swing bowler and an established lower middle order batsman who had two Test hundreds against the might of Bradman's Australia which was spearheaded by a pace attack of Lindwall, Miller & Johnston.

Dwayne Bravo is not a no 6 or 7 batsman. In fact he's a better version of Mudassar Nazar. He's a golden arm with the ball and a flamboyant batsman.

He can become Windies best player if he opens the batting.

Excellent article. Bravo brings verve, exhiliration and more importantly in terms of what the others lack, professionalism and belief to the team.

The idea of him opening the batting is bold, I had never considered it before but it may be worth a try, it may solve the perennial opening problem and the lower order with Shiv, Nash,and Ramdin and Taylor improving is not bad now even without Bravo. I can't remember an opening allrounder since Manoj Prabhakar.

Sadly, talent-wise international cricket is becoming poorer by the day......most legends of the modern era have faded into retirement....while the remaining few (sachin, yousuf, dravid, ponting, kallis) will soon join the list....in this bitter and depressing scenario, players like dwayne bravo, jesse ryder and Jp duminy offer some incentive for cricket lovers to stay attatched to the game.!!!

This is indeed a good article, and Bravo deserves all the kudos in the world. On the field he is dynamic and electric. Nevertheless let us not forget Bernard Julien, he even made a century at Lords, remember? And what about Roger Harper and David Holford? On the contemporary scene let us not forget Darren Sammy and Brendon Nash. These were and are genuine all rounders, dont you think?

[Mike: In other discussions, I've been convinced of the merits of Bernard Julien. I'm not convinced that the others have been worthwhile *as allrounders* in international cricket, whatever they may have achieved in first-class cricket.

In particular, if Nash's bowling is supposed to qualify him as an all-rounder, then the term is meaningless.]

I agree with all your summations about Bravo, he is a live wire ... your comments about Gayle's leadership are remarkably harsh ... although not entirely unfounded. I am sure that you have more than enough statistics to back your claim of his indolence however as a ardent WI supporter I could not help but hope you would soon live to regret your embarrassing dismissal Chris Gayle's leadership.

[Mike: Back in the 1980s, David Gower was described as being so laid-back that if he went any further he'd be horizontal. Gayle is the only captain I can think of who actually makes Gower look like a human dynamo.

The troops obviously love him, and he leads from the front with the bat, but in the field it seems to take him half an hour to notice anything at all.]

I agree with tour assessment on Bravo. He was very useful as an all rounder in IPL 2008 for Mumbai Indians. Anyway i really enjoy watching him play whether balling or batting. He is an invaluable asset to any team...Cheers Bravo!!!!

All of you missed Phil Simmons.

Will he play in IPL??

Bravo to Bravo, he deserve the the salutation. Without a doubt Keith Boyce lit up games similar to Bravo in his day, even though the shorter version of the games was not played as today. He is certainly one of the true West Indian allrounder.

just to remind the author of a certain mister keith boyce barbadian allrounder, i had the privalage of seeing him play he was quite something !!!

Great article...I noticed in the story about the West Indies squad to tour England, that Bravo isn't named in the squad. Is this an error? Or is he not touring? If so, why not?

Abednego; NO-ONE is going to count a man (Phil Simmons)with 4 test wickets as a true allrounder.

i am not saying that bravo is not a ture allrounder but what about jimmy adam don't left him out.

I agree with Fitzroy
Jimmy Adams was a true all-rounder.
Perhaps the only player in Test cricket who has bowled and also kept wickets in the same over of the Test match.