The Caribbean Captaincy Conundrum

The West Indies started their Australian tour today with a four day warm up match in Brisbane today.  Thank goodness that the full strength West Indies team is here.  The dispute between the West Indies Players’ Association and the West Indian Cricket Board that has simmered acrimoniously for several months is at an uneasy compromise.

However, that hardly puts the West Indies in a position of strength or stability.  One question has been, “Who should be captain?”.  Chris Gayle was the incumbent before the strike and there is no doubt that he commands respect for his batting powers.

Sir Viv recently suggested to Cricinfo (http://www.cricinfo.com/ausvwi09/content/story/433935.html) that perhaps they should have looked at Daren Ganga.  Gayle’s motivation has been questionable in the past few months, being fuelled with his own remarks that “maybe it wouldn’t be so sad if Test cricket dies out”.  On the other hand, Ganga’s leadership was inspirational as he led Trinidad & Tobago in a memorable tilt in the Champions League.

It would have been a bold and decisive move for the West Indies to replace Gayle with Ganga and perhaps West Indian Cricket is not well known for such attributes.  It should be noted that Ganga is not even on the tour.

Adding to the dilemma and intrigue is that just today, Gayle has returned home to be with his seriously ill mother.  He is obviously missing the tour match and common sense says he must be doubtful for the 1st Test which starts next Thursday.  Denesh Ramdin has taken over the reigns against Queensland.

The question of captaincy is an interesting one when it comes to the West Indies.  While most nations have their factions, and these are often defined by geographical allegiances, the West Indies is actually a collection of small nations.  You don’t even need to look for geographic bundaries.  At the Champions League, T & T were not representing their state or province – they were representing their country.  It is a challenge to lead a team of players where rivalries built on national pride exist.  It has long been recognised that it takes a special man, a man of maturity and stature to lead the West Indies.

In 1960-61 in Australia, Sir Frank Worrell’s leadership received accolades starting with his opposite number, Richie Benaud, and on through the ages, beyond his untimely death.  Worrell’s spirit and attitude was reflected in his team and in a series that is regarded as one of the best ever.

For 15 years, the West Indies benefited from the cool head of Clive Lloyd.  He was a different man to Worrell but in his own way, he was a giant (not just physically).

Since Lloyd, the West Indies have had a string leaders, starting with Richards, who may have been superstars as players, but they sacrificed leadership for arrogance and egos.  A few exceptions spring to mind (such as Courtney and Chiv) but the West Indies have been let down by their leaders for more than a decade.

What sort of a leader is Gayle? Is he an inspirational leader?  Will his players make sacrifices for him?  Will he make sacrifices for his team?  As a batsman, he can be inspirational but I don’t think that is enough.  And even his batting record does not stand up to closer scrutiny.  Gayle has scored around 5,500 Test runs.  His average is a shade under 40.  He has scored just 10 Test centuries.  To put that in perspective, the guys five either side of him on the list have scored between 14 and 18 centuries each.  Gayle does have prodigious talent, but you have to question if he often enough shows the resolve to turn potential into runs.  Any captain needs to be nothing, if not resolute.

Personally, I’m not so sure about Gayle.  I don’t think he is the right man.  I believe that the Windies hopes will be pinned on Chanderpaul (again), Sarwan and Bravo.  And I almost forgot, there is a red herring.  His name is Brendan Nash.  If his name sounds familiar, it probably is because it is.  Nash looks like an Aussie, sounds like and Aussie and is an Aussie.  He was born in Western Australia and played for Queensland until 2006-07.  As his father was Jamaican, Nash moved to Jamaica and within 12 months received a call up for the West Indies.  It was a real call up – it was before the strike.  In fact, Nash was involved in the strike.

It will be interesting to see if Nash gets a Test against his old country at his old home ground.

Dravid is Alive and Well

Some of us thought he was approaching the end of his (cricketing) life but Rahul Dravid showed us all that there life left in him yet.  In the first Test against Sri Lanka, the home team (India), having elected to bat, found themselves in some trouble at 4-32. 

A partial recovery was led by Dravid and Yuvraj Singh as they took the score to a less vulnerable 5-157.  Then Dravid and the New Face of Indian Cricket took the match away from Sri Lanka.  Dhoni was dismissed for 110 just before stumps and Dravid is 177 not out.  He has hit 26 x 4 and a six and scored at a very respectable rate of 70.5 runs/hb.

I’ve been wondering about Dravid recently.  Australia just played an ODI series against India and there was no sign of Dravid.  Perhaps this should not be a complete surprise as aside from the recent Champions Trophy, Dravid has not played One Day cricket since 2007.  However, the fact is that he played half a dozen ODI matches for India in the immediate past.   So that must mean he was dropped (again) from the one day team.

So where did that leave him placed for Tests?  My recollection is that Dravid had slim pickings in Australia’s unsuccessful tour of India in 2008, and in fact, overall, 2008 was a miserable year for Dravid.  I really didn’t know if Dravid was in India’s plans anymore.

However, a little digging shows that this is just India’s fourth Test match for 2009.  The first three were played in New Zealand.  Dravid played in them all and scored four half centuries.  So it’s no surprise to see him selected for this series.

And there it is.  The ever green Dravid has produced the goods again.  Not only that, he has scored exactly 11,000 Test runs at an average of better than 53.  This places him 5th on the Test run aggregate list and whether or not you are a fan, it has to be acknowledged that Dravid is one of the greats.

On other news:

Richie Benaud will be pulling on the beige jacket for his elected channel for the next three years (warning: he is 79 years old).  He will not have a regular commentating role but will be available for special comments, analysis, mentoring and chardonnay.  For Rugby League fans, think of the role that Jack Gibson (“The Super Coach”) played for the same channel.

And finally, there has been noise over the next Sydney Ashes Test – and that it might be played at the Olympic Stadium instead of the SCG.  Take a deep breath everyone.  This is not going to happen.  The same row occurred five years ago when Cricket NSW renewed their five year contract with the SCG Trust.  If you are interested, take a look at this Cricinfo item and see how many times the word “negotiations” is used, and you will understand what is going on.  http://www.cricinfo.com/australia/content/story/434042.html   It looks to me like NSW Cricket representative, David Gilbert – honest paceman turned hard-nosed businessman – is gently reminding the SCG Trust that they no longer hold a monopoly over major cricket venues for Sydney.