Holder’s next mission!

HE CONCERN was genuine, widespread and well-founded.

Clive Lloyd’s appointment of Jason Holder as new West Indies captain for an initiation in South Africa against South Africa, one of the game’s present powerhouses, followed by the pressure of the World Cup seemed too great a burden to place on the youngest of all West Indies skippers.

Holder was 23, had played just 21 ODIs and never led even of his native Barbados. His task coincided with an especially turbulent time, as Chris Gayle, the most experienced and prominent member of the team, openly seethed over the omissions of Dwayne Bravo and Keiron Pollard from the squad for the World Cup.

Bravo had been captain and spokesman for the players on the previous, ill-fated tour of India that prematurely ended when the