| At best, Floyd Reifer was an average cricketer who | | | | selected to the ill-fated 1998/1999 tour of South Africa. |
| had moderate success at the domestic level in the | | | | His South African adventure was even worse than |
| West Indies. The Barbadian was a lucky man, having | | | | the series against Sri Lanka; the left-hander scored 15 |
| the fortune of captaining the West Indies in 2009. He | | | | runs in four innings and it seemed as though his |
| was, perhaps, the worst cricketer to captain the | | | | international career was over. Fast forward to 2009; |
| Caribbean side between 1928 and 2010. | | | | WIPA precipitated a player's strike that led the WICB |
| Floyd was born on July 23, 1972 at Christchurch, | | | | to select a playing eleven that could have been a |
| Barbados. The left-handed batsman made his First | | | | third-string side. Reifer was appointed captain for that |
| Class debut in the 1991/1992 season, when he was 19 | | | | two-match series against Bangladesh. |
| years old. He took a while to establish himself on a | | | | After ten years in the international wilderness, the |
| strong Barbados squad. It was not until the 1997 First | | | | Barbadian was at the helm of the Caribbean team - a |
| Class season that Reifer got himself in the radar of | | | | dubious honour in the circumstances. Against the |
| the West Indies selection through a productive season | | | | weakest Test-playing nation, the West Indies lost both |
| with the bat. | | | | Tests and all the ODIs. Reifer did not help his statistics |
| Reifer's performance at the domestic level earned him | | | | much either, scoring 48 runs in four innings. At age 36, |
| selection to the West Indies team for the 1997 home | | | | fans hoped never to see the left-hander play |
| series against Sri Lanka. The Barbadian failed to | | | | international cricket under any circumstances. From six |
| translate the potential on the regional scene into | | | | Tests, the inept middle-order batsman scored 111 runs |
| performance at international level. In his first two Tests | | | | at an average of 9.25! Clearly, he was only good |
| against the Sri Lankans, he scored only 48 runs in four | | | | enough on flat tracks and against weak bowling |
| innings, at an average of 12.00. | | | | attacks at domestic level. |
| Reifer got another chance at Test level when he was | | | | |