Firefighter Anthony Martin, in the cold, dubs Windies ‘team of friends’

This team is made up of people who are friends with selectors, share drink with them.

The last time India played an

ODI here in 2011, Anthony Martin was the unlikely hero, the leg-spinner shaking up the Indian batting by taking four for 36 as West Indies defended a modest 249 to win by 103 runs.

The outspoken Martin, also an Antiguan firefighter, had deceived Virat Kohli in flight to have him stumped and also accounted for Rohit Sharma.

West Indies, down 3-0, had gone on to win the last match in Jamaica as well to make the final scoreline 3-2. Martin picked two wickets in the last game too.

Martin had also toured India for ODIs, giving a good account of himself, again dismissing Kohli and Rohit. But as it has happened to many players here, he fell away.

To supplement his income as a firefighter, Martin started driving a truck. The 34-year-old has made enough to employ a driver.

“I am not friends with selectors. This team is made up of people who are friends with selectors, share drink with them. I don’t, so I have not been in the team. These players, they have done nothing to deserve a place in the team. You see the performance, it’s a team of friends,” he says as he drives through St John’s with wife and daughter.

“I don’t do nothin’ (to appease them). I am still better than whoever is playing now,” says Martin, whose last first-class game was in 2015.

“No one has pushed for the inclusion of my name. None of the great Antiguan cricketers have bothered to push my name,” he says.

Martin nurses a big dream, and that is to have a crack at some of the top players in the game.

“I want to play just one

IPL game and have a crack at the top batsmen like in the RCB. I want to show these guys where they have erred.”