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He does not take as many wickets as the other bowlers, nor does he score as many runs as those higher in the order, but then his contribution is more qualitative than quantitative. He is dangerous. A side may think they are getting on top, but then Bravo disabuses them of that notion, whether by getting rid of the partners in a stand of 140 in the first and second over of his spell, breaking the grip a bowler was tightening by smacking him for three fours and a six, or making a brilliant catch or direct-hit runout.

He is the action hero who drops out of a helicopter on to the roof of a moving car, slides in through the window, grabs the steering wheel and wrenches it into a U-turn with one hand while incapacitating the driver with the other.

Of course, it’s rare that stunts like that come at the end of the movie. All that has been achieved is a temporary advantage. Whether it is decisive will usually depend on whether the backup arrives in time to press that advantage home.

Under the indolent leadership of the somnambulistic Gayle, it is all too possible that the backup will finish their drinks and smoke a cigar before making their way to the scene in their own good time, but Bravo’s evident passion is at least partial insurance against such sloth. His committed enthusiasm ought to be infectious, but even when it isn’t his vocal displeasure at sloppiness in the field lashes the lazy into line.

It is most likely that his contributions will be recognised as decisive in the shorter forms of the game – if he has not done so already, he should commission a joiner to come up with a display case for all the Man-of-the-Match awards he is going to pick up – but he will also be the man who tipped close Tests West Indies way. Even though someone else gets the credit for a century or six-for, the crucial moment will have been when Bravo ran out Graeme Smith or smote Harbhajan Singh from the attack.

He is an exciting player in the best sense - he makes things happen and matches come alive when he is involved. It is good to welcome him back.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.]