As the West Indies continue their slide down the depths of the cricketing world, the subject of the status of the current Test Captain, Jason Holder, has started to be bandied about in discussion forums and amongst that fast-dwindling, endangered species, the West Indies cricket fan.
Captain Holder was appointed to the position in October 2015, at the age of 23 years and 343 days, the second youngest WI leader ever, with only eight Tests under his belt.
Holder has been at the helm for 37 Tests now, during which time the West Indies have carved out a record of 11 wins, 21 losses and five draws. This unimposing record is not necessarily a true reflection of Holder’s leadership – it must be borne in mind the quality of players (and more notably their attitudes) during this period – but at the end of the day it is the record attached to his stewardship.
Captaining the West Indies has been, and will always be a difficult proposition, even for those best suited for the position, since the players are drawn from a wide array of territories, where petty squabbles, arguments, and conflicts of interest amongst neighbouring countries are part of the fabric of everyday existence. The sole act of harnessing this group to play together requires the strength of conviction and fortitude of a very strong – preferably not dominant or fearmongering – personality type. This job is clearly not for the faint of heart since one’s personal performances and leadership on the field are under constant scrutiny and review by an entire region.
Initially, the West Indies, or to be more accurate, the colonies’ teams, were always squired by Caucasians, with the lone exception being George Headley, who led for one Test during England’s visit to the Caribbean in 1947/48. In some instances, the appointed captain sometimes did not even merit a place in the final XI, but was still selected to lead the side. It was a policy mirroring that of England’s, where for a long period the best captain available was often selected first, although he might not have made the final XI had the side been picked in the traditional manner.
Beginning in 1960, with the appointment of the first non-Caucasian Captain, Frank Worrell, the West Indies have adopted a policy of selecting a captain who merits his place in the side. In the following thirty-five years, the West Indies were blessed to be led by a select group of very gifted cricketers: Garry Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd, Alvin Kallicharran and Viv Richards. Unfinished debates still linger as to whether Sobers, Worrell’s protégé, should have gotten the nod over Conrad Hunte, or if Sobers’ cousin, David Holford, who led many successful Barbados teams, was a better choice than Lloyd. Except for a period in the doldrums between March 1969 and July 1973, when they were winless in twenty Test matches, the West Indies were always a force to be reckoned with on the world stage during this era.
The legacy of the West Indies’ unbeaten run in Test cricket from June 1980 to May 1995 has dangled like the Holy Grail out of the reach of every West Indian skipper since that streak came to an unceremonious end. Truth be told, since Worrell, whose record in fifteen matches reads, nine wins, three losses and three draws, of the twenty-four captains that followed, only Lloyd, Richards, and Richie Richardson, can point to winning records over an extended period of time. (Ridley Jacobs was 2-0 in one series versus Bangladesh). The mantle of leading the West Indies, fraught with the underlying insularity and the accompanying years of mistrust between the players and the board, must be a heavy yoke to bear. No one, not even exceptional talents like Brian Lara and Carl Hooper, has been able to emerge victorious from this preordained web of doom which appears to have been cast on the West Indies.
One recent performance by a Test captain draws attention to the high quality of leadership demanded for success at the Test level. In the First Test of the current series between Australia and India, India suffered the ignominy of being dismissed for 36, their lowest ever total in Tests, tied for the fifth lowest in history, and the lowest since New Zealand’s 26 in 1955, as they succumbed by eight wickets, despite having led by 53 on first innings. A week later, India, bereft of their captain, Virat Kohli, one of the best batsmen in the world and three other first choice players, confronted the mighty Australians in the cauldron of Melbourne. Against the odds, India, led by stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane, became only the third side in fifty years to recover from a one-nil deficit Down Under to level a series. Rahane, batting at four in the most difficult of conditions, compiled a match-winning century in six hours, in a display of immense concentration, as he swung the match in India’s favour. While calmly ignoring the cloud of the recent debacle in Adelaide, Rahane instilled the belief amongst his teammates that they could win the game. His shrewd reading of the fluctuating swings in the game was equally critical to India’s surprise victory by eight wickets.
Rahane’s excellent leadership earned high praise from former outstanding Australian Test Captain Ian Chappell, no routine dispenser of accolades. Writing for ESPNcricinfo, Chappell stated, “A former resident of Mumbai told me his wife lip-read Rahane say the words ‘Come on, India,’ when he reached his MCG century. That is another thing that defines Rahane’s captaincy: he’s all about the team.
“At a time when aggressive, proactive international captaincy is in short supply, India are fortunate to have two leaders who both understand the value of taking wickets over containing the opposition.” In two simple paragraphs, the former captain, who never lost a series, summed up the essence of Test cricket; team play and taking wickets.
How much longer will Holder be the skipper? Only Lloyd (74 Tests), Richards (50), Lara (47), and Sobers (39) have led the West Indies on more occasions than Holder. As recently as 2019, Holder was the top ranked all-rounder by the ICC, a first for the West Indies since Sobers held the post in 1974. While his place in the side, for the moment, cannot be denied, the big question is whether removing the burden of captaincy will improve his batting and bowling.
After five years in charge, questions still remain about his reading of momentum shifts in the game, his cautious on-the-field tactics and the tendency to bowl himself when other bowlers are better suited to the prevailing conditions. Is Holder disregarding the instructions and advice of the experienced coaching staff, or is he just a reflection of the general malaise that engulfs our cricket?
It is unlikely that Holder, who has opted to miss the current tour of Bangladesh due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, will be replaced in the near future. The selectors have reverted to Kraigg Brathwaite who lost all five Test matches he led, and was previously relieved of the vice-captaincy so that he could concentrate on his batting. Perhaps the team would have been better off if the selectors had adopted England’s former method of choosing the best captain available and opted for Guyana’s Leon Johnson, a veteran of nine Tests, who led the Jaguars to a record-levelling five consecutive regional titles (2015/19) before the pandemic curtailed the 2020 season.
A dearth of effective leadership has dogged the West Indies since the late 90s and this Achilles heel will continue to adversely affect the team’s performance until it is fully taken cognizance of and addressed.
