Clive Lloyd: Your questions answered

Clive Lloyd is one of the most respected figures in world cricket.

He was captain of the West Indies side which dominated all rivals from the mid-70s until his retirement from the international scene in 1985, he played in 110 Test matches and 87 one-day internationals and lifted the World Cup in 1975 and 1979 .

He joins Sport Online to answer your questions.

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Ronnie Arneja, USA: Do you miss playing cricket?

Clive Lloyd: Not really, no. I've had 30 odd years involved in cricket and played until I was into my 40s. I had a full run and I'm quite happy with what I did.

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Clive Lloyd

Ramaswami Kishore, USA: People like you and Sir Garfield Sobers were such good players of spin and latere generations of West Indian batsmen seem to struggle against good spin bowling. Do you think there was any particular reason why your batting was more well-rounded?

Clive Lloyd: I think they played the Pakistani spin bowlers pretty well. It's just down to experience - when the youngsters play in places like India and Pakistan they'll get that sort of experience. At the moment, yes, it's a bit alien to them, but I'm sure they'll be able to handle it later on.

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Roy, USA: To what extent are you and your past teammates, such as Lance Gibbs and Alvin Kallicharran, still in touch?

Clive Lloyd: Lance goes down the West Indies fairly often, his work takes him to the West Indies three or four times a month, I think. Alvin is still around, but I don't think he's had any coaching or done any jobs in the West Indies, but I;m sure he keeps in contact with the guys.

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Ram Chanicka, USA: Which fast bowlers would you consider to be the best four-pronged pace attack?

Clive Lloyd: In a current World XI you would have Allan Donald, Walsh and Ambrose - Gough is coming through pretty well. But there's McGrath from Australia, the young Lee looks very quick, Shoaib Akhtar, Wasim Akram' s still doing his stuff. You have a lot of them, so it's very difficult, but those are the ones that stand out at the moment.

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Brian Lara

Akwesi Antwi, UK: Do you think the West Indies have turned the corner after what was a dismal run? If so, what has changed apart from Jimmy Adams replacing Brian Lara as captain?

Clive Lloyd: He (Jimmy) took over at a time when Brian wasn't up for it. Only time will tell, but he seems to be doing quite well. They are showing a little bit more guts, and fight. They were shot out for a very small score in the last Test match, so it will be interesting to see how they come out of this.

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Jiju Pramod, United States: Even with gifted batsmen and fiery bowlers, what in your opinion prevents the current West Indies team from being number one?

Clive Lloyd: I don't know about great batsmen. At the moment they have Brian Lara, Jimmy Adams, and Chanderpaul, but Brian Lara is the only one in the ratings as such. Walsh and Ambrose are ageing bowlers. They're still able to turn it on, but don't have long to go.

They're not the best team in the world at the moment, but they have the potential to be if the youngsters come through and the people who are replacing Walsh and Ambrose are able to fill their shoes. It will take some time before we know how good they are.

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Mark Duesbury, England: When will the next set of cricketing greats emerge from the West Indies?

Clive Lloyd: I hope pretty soon. You've got Wavell Hinds, who is doing pretty well, there's young Sarwan. There's a couple more at home.

Let's hope that after this tour a lot of them will blossom. But there's a lot of work to be done, there's no doubt about that. When a side is being bowled out for 54 on a pitch which is not a bad wicket, I still think there's some work to be done.

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Pete, UK: Does it worry you that England's bowling attack skittled out the West Indies with such astonishing ease?

Clive Lloyd: To be bowled out in under 25 overs is no mean feat. I think this will give England that boost that they needed. They were more aggressive.

Twice in the game they were out of it. They were 160 for one, the West Indies, and it looked like they were facing a large total, but their bowlers brought them back in the game and then England had a deficit of 133 and shot them out for 54. So, really and truly, the England bowlers did a marvellous job.

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India win the 1983 World Cup

Albert Murphy, St Vincent & the Grenadines: Some people in the Caribbean are of the notion that the West Indies v India final in 1983 was fixed. Can you comment?

Clive Lloyd: There was nobody in my team that would throw a World Cup final. They're barking up the wrong tree. We were the best team in the world, we just happened to play badly on the day. That happens in one-day stuff.

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Ebby Thomas, India: Should the decision on action against players involved in match-fixing be left to the individual boards or the ICC?

Clive Lloyd: It should be ICC, a special committee run by people who probably don't have anything with cricket, just like a board of inquiry. They give their findings and that's it, they should have certain powers.

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Martin Lang, UK: Why are English Test teams so bad? It seems to be a mental problem that also haunts our national football team.

Clive Lloyd: There is nothing that helps a team more than winning Test matches. If England can win Test matches, they will give the youngsters that little extra that they need. If you're losing, and losing often, it's obvious that cricket isn't going to be popular. Looking at how they played at Lord's, if they can carry that through, they can be a top side again.

One thing I'd like to see more of is that when you have Test matches, there should be a section of the ground for students, schoolchildren, so they can get involved in the game, get involved in the atmosphere. It will encourage them to play. Every day four or five schools from around the area should be invited free of charge.

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Anil Kumar, India: What are the main reasons for India's poor showing abroad and what should be done to imrpove their performance?

Sachin Tendulkar

Clive Lloyd: They have Tendulkar and not a lot more. Srinath is getting on - he's a tremendous bowler - but they need a much bigger squad.

Gone are the days when you just win Test matches with spinners. I think they have to look towards getting another Srinath or two, so they are able to shake up the opposition.

They'll always find spinners and batsmen that are pretty good and I'm sure, with the amount of people there are in India, and they have the right direction, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they produce a few more great players.

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Carl Wheaton, USA: Can you see yourself playing another role in West Indian cricket after your last stint?

Clive Lloyd: It's very difficult to say never. I don't know. Cricket has been my life and I'll continue to be involved.

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Sudharsun, Sri Lanka: Why can't we see quality players nowadays from the West Indies? Can anybody take the place of Walsh and Ambrose?

Clive Lloyd: They said nobody's going to replace Kanhai or the three Ws or Garfield Sobers, but we've had people coming through - Vivian Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes.

It will take time, young people have a lot more to do, but we have one or two. Sarwan looks a good cricketer. We're hoping a lot more will follow him.

I think King is doing pretty well and with a little bit of guidance Rose could - he got a little bit of stick in this last game, but he'll learn from his mistakes, hopefully - and then there's Nixon McLean and Merv Dillon. They're the people who can carry the baton.

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Rob Scott, England: Are you worried about the future strength of West Indies cricket, given the influence of US sport throughout the islands?

Clive Lloyd: No, not really - why shouldn't people gravitate to other sports? The point is that cricket is still a passion in the West Indies. Hopefully the standard will be lifted in the future and Jimmy Adams or whoevere follows him will be able to bring cricket back to the top.

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Curtly Ambrose

Laurence Wormald, England: Why are Ambrose and Walsh so good at their ages when most English pace bowlers e.g Angus Fraser are considered past it?

Clive Lloyd: They are not guys who are big-boned. They are very lean and athletic. Ambrose doesn't have a long approach to the wicket and he's kept himself fit. He watches what he eats and he is not a guy who goes out drinking. He's looked after his body - both of them have done so - and that's why they've kept themselves so fit for so long.

You play a lot of county cricket here. You have one or two or three fast bowlers in England who have a back problem and I suppose that's because of the constant work that they do.

They'rve trying to streamline that by pulling people out of games so that when they come into a Test match or when they go on tour that they'll be fresh and wanting to play.

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Adrian Deen, USA: What are your thoughts on the development of youing sporting talent in Guyana?

Clive Lloyd: I was there trying to promote a stadium in Guyana, a cricket stadium, athletics stadium and cycling track. It's still up in the air, they're still talking about it. It's important that they do that because in Guyana, they are mad about their sport and a stadium, I feel, would bring on the best of the young talent.

Where they play Test matches, next door there's a football ground and I wanted to amalgamate those two things and make a massive stadium.

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Lance Gibbs

Muhammad Husain, Cyprus: Why do West Indies produce quality fast bowlers, rather than a match-winning spin bowler?

Clive Lloyd: Over the years we've had spin bowlers, starting with Ramadhin and Valentine. We had Lance Gibbs and we had a host of other spinners, Inshan Ali, Jumadeen, Arthur Barrett, the coach here, Roger Harper.

We now have quite a few leg-spinners, Nagamootoo is here and we have Gayle who can bowl some off-spin, so I don't think spinners are dying in the West Indies.

With the height of the players in the West Indies, they want to bowl quick, they don't want to bowl spin. But, as I've said, we have a fixed rate of spin - we have one in Trinidad, we have Rawl Lewis in Grenada, we have a couple in Barbados, we have Nagamootoo in Guyana, so we are not short of spinners. It's just a matter of them producing the goods at the right time.

I don't think the fast boelwers we've had have been to the detriment of spin. Nagamootoo is here, he's playing and I think eventually we will find one who can bat, and that will be an interesting situation.

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Amit Patel, USA: How do you rate Brian Lara to Viv Richards?

Clive Lloyd: Brian has some way to go. He's a tremendous cricketer, there's no doubt about that, it all depends on how consistent he is.