(Trinidad Express) West Indian legends Clive Lloyd and Deryck Murray both said Kraigg Brathwaite could retain the captaincy of the WI Test squad ahead of the upcoming Sri Lanka series.
Lloyd and Murray also agreed that long-time skipper Jason Holder still earned a spot in the squad as the team’s premier all-rounder but stressed it was important to send the right message with the selections for the upcoming home tour.
On the Mason & Guest show Tuesday night, Murray said: “(Kraigg) Brathwaite pulled that team together, put himself to bowl at a crucial time in the game. That is a person who was positive, who was doing things. Do we just say thank you very much, sit in the corner till we call you again? We need to think.”
Murray said Holder had complained of suffering from mental fatigue and CWI chief selector Roger harper should probably consider relieving him of the burden of the captaincy to focus on his game at this juncture.
“Maybe just as Kraigg Brathwaite lost the vice-captaincy and came back, this might be an opportunity for someone else to sit back, perform as a player to the best of their ability and they probably would be indispensable in a team in the all-rounder’s spot.
He added: “So we need to look very carefully and make sure that we do not belittle anybody’s performance in the last series because the so-called stars are coming back. There is nobody who is an automatic selection in the WI team. Everybody has to earn their place and be measured against the last performance we had.”
Murray pointed out that based on the 2-0 Test series win in Bangladesh, there are five to six players who have added their names to the group considered as the first team, who have all made a strong case for themselves. He noted that Holder could concentrate on his batting and being a more wicket-taking, attacking, rather than containing bowler.
“We need to have the best available team at that time… who is coming in with the confidence of being successful, rallying around the team that we are going to build for the next three/four months, because we have three to four series coming up in quick succession,” Murray contended, adding that the Brathwaite-led team in Bangladesh deserved all kudos for their performance.
Lloyd, a former selector who guided Holder to the captaincy, relented to opt for Brathwaite over Holder as captain. “Obviously Kraigg would be slightly ahead because of what they have done with the team they had there (in Bangladesh)…it is a beautiful position to be in…it is entirely up to them and I am sure Jason is a guy who would not sit down and say I have got a bad deal, a raw deal, but it is a good position to be in and I am happy that they are in that situation,” said Lloyd.
The former Windies captain expected the selectors, management and coaching staff would need to have a discussion with the squad and understand the dynamics of the team spirit and interplay in the performance of the successful Windies squad on the sub-continent.
“Because you can’t get rid of these guys that did such a marvellous job. There is so many things that they did right. Not many sides went into the fifth day in Test cricket over the last three years…the point is you just can’t think that this is just a flash in the pan. This was excellent performances.”
He said being captain of the West Indies is by far more difficult than being the captain of any other Test-playing nation because it involved one man managing players from a 14-island spread featuring different cultures and backgrounds.
“It is not easy to bring people together,” Lloyd said. “Brathwaite and those guys in the matter of a couple of weeks pulled things together. We have to reward them. I want to see them rewarded for what they have achieved.”
