batsmen of the last thirty-three years are all softies

Shoaib Akhtar was a man among boys. He was rather fortunate by virtue of his date of birth. He did not have the opportunity to come up against the really great West Indian test match batsmen. He did not hurl the ball at demon speed to Fredericks, Kanhai, Kallicharran, Butcher, Lloyd, Weeks, Walcott, Worrell, Hunte, Gary Sobers, Seymour Nurse, George Headley, Lawrence Rowe Collie Smith and Viv Richards and others of similar abilities and talent. I have never seen great West Indian batsmen so completely victimized by ineptitude, and lying on the pitching and writhing in pain as Brian Lara from a delivery by Shoaib Akhtar.
I think the batsmen of the last thirty-three years are all softies. They are all prima donnas. This era of the one bouncer per over and helmets and other protective equipment have not reproduced one cricketer of real merit, of comparison to those of 1948 - 1977. I believe the greatest cricketers all appeared between 1948 and 1977 on the international arena. They are too many steps below the ability and the talent of the players, 1948-1977. I subscribe most test match teams, in that era had three, four and occasionally more top class match winning bowlers. In the 1950s England had Jim Laker, Tony Lock, Fred Truman, Alec Bedser, and Statham. They are as fine a five some that has ever appeared in a test side. In the period 1975-1976, Australia had a bowling attack comprising of Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, Max Walker, Gary Gilmour and Ashley Mallett. In the 1970s, India had four outstanding world class spinners; Prasanna, Bedi, Venkataraghavan, and Chandrasekhar. West Indies briefly, 1960-1966, had Hall, Griffith, Sobers and Gibbs bowling near the top of their game at the same period. There is obviously no doubt about that fact in my thought process.