SOME odd things have been said in relation to the replacement of Jason Holder by Kraigg Brathwaite as captain of the West Indies team.
I was especially taken aback by one article which suggested that Holder’s “uninspired” leadership of the West Indies team was behind heavy Test-match defeats against New Zealand in that country late last year and contributed to him losing the captaincy.
Could it be that some cricket watchers have forgotten or maybe never realised that New Zealand are, and have been for a few years, among the most successful international teams?
It’s not by accident that New Zealand reached the final of the 50-over World Cup in England in 2019, and on another day very possibly would have lifted that trophy.
Nor is it accidental that New Zealand are into the final of the World Test Championship against India in England this summer.
Cricket watchers mustn’t forget that just before COVID-19 interrupted normal life, New Zealand had swept mighty India 2-0 in a Test series in New Zealand.
In other words, to have expected this West Indies team, ranked eighth in Test cricket, to go to New Zealand and beat them on their green, grassy pitches was expecting way too much. A drawn series would have been outstanding. As it turned out, the results of that series went according to the form book.
Where am I going with all this? Context is what I am getting at.
Everything needs to be seen in its proper context so to me, while Holder’s record of 11 wins from 37 Tests as West Indies captain is unflattering, he needs to be commended for the job he did in the most difficult of circumstances.
I believe that’s what his successor Brathwaite was getting at when he heaped praise on Holder for his work in those years between 2015 and late last year.
When Holder took over leadership of the West Indies cricket team in all formats in late 2015, he inherited an environment fraught with instability and turmoil, mostly as a result of off-field governance issues. We should recall that players and administration were at loggerheads to such an extent that some of the best no longer played for the regional team.
In the Test match arena, Holder inherited a West Indies side with the great Shivnarine Chanderpaul having just exited, while Darren Bravo and Kraigg Brathwaite seemed on the fringe of becoming world-class batsmen.
As it turned out, neither did. By November 2016 Bravo had become embroiled in the infamous ‘Big Idiot’ quarrel with then Cricket West Indies President Dave Cameron, which led to his absence from the West Indies cricket team for nearly two years. He has looked a shadow of his former self since his return, though we keep our fingers crossed given his recent form in limited overs cricket.
Since the West Indies tour of England in 2017 Brathwaite’s batting has slumped so badly his average fell from the high 30s to 32 currently.
Other batsmen — most notably Shai Hope and Roston Chase — have shown rich promise only to fade away. The ultra-aggressive Jermaine Blackwood, who was dropped from the Test team for more than a year, has been showing signs since his recall last year of only just learning how best to build an innings.
All of the above has meant that Holder has been leading a West Indies team with the weakest batting since before the coming of George Headley in 1930.
Only once before Holder’s time as captain can I locate a West Indies Test team without a world-class batsman. That happened in 2009 when the top West Indies players went on strike, leaving a near third-string regional team to be swept by youthful Bangladesh in the Caribbean.
Even in the late 1970s when Clive Lloyd and most of his leading players separated from the West Indies team to play Kerry Packer’s World Series cricket, Alvin Kallicharran, among the outstanding batsmen of that time, stayed back to lead the formal West Indies team.
Over the last three to four years, Holder has led a team without a single batsman averaging 40. Apart from 2009, at no point since before 1930 can I locate such a scenario.
West Indies bowlers inclusive of Shannon Gabriel, Kemar Roach, Holder, Roston Chase and more lately, Rahkeem Cornwall, have kept the West Indies flag aloft in these most difficult of times.
It needs to be said that as Test captain, Holder excelled as a player, becoming the world’s leading Test match all-rounder.
In retrospect, the initial task — later revised — of leading the West Indies in all three formats was too much for Holder. I believe he was given all-format captaincy early on because others, such as current limited overs’ Captain Kieron Pollard, were sidelined in that long-running conflict between players and administrators.
Also, in my view, when Holder chose not to go to Bangladesh recently he was signalling perhaps unconsciously that after nearly six years he had come to the end of his tether as West Indies Test captain.
Indeed, even the most successful of West Indies captains such as Lloyd and Viv Richards found leadership extremely challenging — a poisoned chalice at times — with fault-finding at every turn.
For Brathwaite, who led with such success in an interim role in Bangladesh, life won’t be easy as he takes the reins as the established Test captain against talented Sri Lanka starting today in Antigua. But he has been well prepared for this, having led Barbados and West Indies at all age group levels. Above all, perhaps, he is a hard worker with self-belief who has seen it all.
He has it within him to make us all very proud. (adapted, Jamaica Observer)
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