Gordon Greenidge told Cricket AM how Clive Lloyd united the West Indies in a way that the politicians couldn't.
The former opening batsman was part of a golden era for Caribbean cricket in the 1970's and 1980's where he swept past all-comers in the company of players such as Desmond Haynes, Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner and Andy Roberts.
And speaking on Cricket AM he paid tribute to former skipper Lloyd for bringing together such a powerful group of players from across the Caribbean islands, despite the political in-fighting that existed in the region.
Greenidge said: "It was overheard someone saying how would other teams feel going in to play the West Indies when they know they are going to come off second best?
"We came from different territories within the Caribbean and there's a lot of animosity and insularity when that happens. Some islands feel their players should be better suited to this position or the team and so on.
"It doesn't always turn out that way and when the players came together as a West Indies team, we just gelled beautifully. Whatever troubles and problems that faced us off the field, when we came together as a team on the field all of those things were put aside and we just focused on the job at hand.
"It was a nice way of letting the people know we can work together, but I think the politicians were really the problem in the whole situation. They don't seem to live together well at all and were always at loggerheads.
"We gelled well, we played well together, we helped each other, we supported each other, we discussed the game a lot off the field and we had many team meetings where we had battles off the field of play.
"But having a person like Clive Lloyd, who was at the helm then, was excellent. He really afforded the players to perform the way they wanted to, uninhibited: 'You go out there and play the way you want to and we know you'll be successful.'
"The players were not restricted at all in the way they played."
Hit the video at the top of the page to hear Gordon debate his partnership with Desmond Haynes, his famous 200 at Lord's in 1984 and why he turned down the chance to play for England...
