Sarwan to be Captain and WI positives

[Andy Mellon]

Tony Cozier has opened a potential exit for Shiv Chanderpaul. In fact, he's positively calling for Chanderpaul to be removed and replaced with his Guyanan collegue Ramnaresh Sarwan:

LINK

I can see some positives with replacing Chanderpaul. Chanders has suffered badly from taking on the captaincy. I think its clear that the pressure of leading the Windies has got to him both on and off the field and his batting has suffered as a result. Chanderpaul is one of the keys to the Windies' middle order and they need him on form. Hopefully he can regain this if he was stripped of the captaincy. On the other hand, I have no idea whether Sarwan will be any better as a captain than Chanders.

Also, it would be all to easy for people who didn't see the recent NZ WI series to say that the Windies were outclassed. Frankly, they weren't, and the Windies can take as many positives as the Kiwis - maybe more. Runako Morton looked to be the solid number 3 who the Windies have been lacking for years. After a very poor ODI series for both Gayle and Ganga, they looked to be a decent combination at the top and a good pairing in terms of the difference in styles.

Fidel Edwards continues to improve, and he could well be the new fast bowling prospect to make the Windies the Windies! He certainly seems to have more cricketing nous than Tino Best. Ian Bradshaw also looked a solid opening partner, though exhaustion seemed to have caught up with him by the 2nd test - and probably disappointment from the capitulation of the batting line up in Auckland in a test the Windies should have won.

I'm also hoping that Dinesh Ramdin has learnt a lot from this tour. He looked like a real greenhorn in the test series. But, let's not forget that HE IS!

This leaves less questions for the Windies than before the series. As I see it, the questions are:

1) How long can Lara continue?
2) Who is the 3rd seamer? Many contenders - Collymore, Best, Collins, Lawson, Taylor, Powell
3) Do they go for a spinner or stick with a 4 Fast Bowler line up? - Lewis/Mohammad vs. one of the above

This wil give the Windies an ideal line up of Gayle, Ganga, Morton, Sarwan, Chanderpaul, Bravo, Ramdin, ?,Bradshaw, ?, Edwards

[Vrock]

Gayle has played the roll of spinner in the side for a fair while now and I don't really think a specialist spin bowler would do much better at home.

Collymore was bowling really well against the Aussies last year and he was nearly always the best bowler, he must be favourite to come back in.

Lara will carry on till at least the World Cup, after that I'm unsure.

[Ninjaman]

This shows the folly of removing Lara as captain in the first place.

Those of us in the know know he was removed for reasons with nothing to do with cricket.

Sarwan was his VC. Ok, Test results weren't great but they rose up to around #4 in ODI rankings and one the ICC Champions Trophy.

The next senior person, Chanderpaul, received the captaincy by default because unlike Sarwan and Gayle, the other 2 potential candidates for the job, he was not involved in the Digicel/Cable and Wireless fiasco.

A classic case of sponsors dictating team selection.

At home as captain prior to the Sri Lanka away series, Shiv averaged 90 with 3 centuries including a double on debut

But when the B team was taken to Sri Lanka for the small matter of a refusal to pay a further US$50,000 to the team in payments, Chanderpaul's captaincy was doomed.

On the road as cappo, he averages 22.5 and his stance is getting wackier and wackier.

This is a man who in the previous 3 years before becoming captain averaged 55!!!

Anyone who has spent time around Shiv would have known that he is not suited to being an international captain. It is not in his make-up. He can get by captaining at the regional level but being captain of Guyana is not the same as captain of the West Indies.

I respect Cozier as a supporter of WI cricket and bow to many aspects of his knowledge but he and many of the other journalists in the Caribbean had an opportunity to speak out at the time this foolish appointment was made.

***

Daren Ganga shoudl never play for WI again.

Since debuting 7 years ago, he has only averaged 24. His 2 centuries in back to back Tests versus the Aussies.

Sorry, but examples need to be set and there are others who deserve a shot just as much as he does. But when your uncle is convenor of selectors...............ok I'll stop!!

With regards to fast bowlers, WI need to try out Andrew Richardson.

[Andy Mellon]

Hot news off the press. Chanderpaul resigns as captain to concentrate on his batting

Cricinfo

Seems bad timing just before another series, but actually the new captain should have a good morale boosting win against Zimbabwe to look forward to. What money on Sarwan being the new skipper?

[Vrock]

He is vice-captain is he not? Certainly the return of Lara for a third stint would seem worthless given his age and how long he will stay in World cricket. Sarwan must be favourite.

It is not a real surprise that Chanderpaul has quit as captain, his batting has suffered majorly and his general captaincy has not been the greatest. I'm sure that allowing for someone else to take the captaincy will allow for Chanderpaul to go back to been a very stable bat.

[Ninjaman]

Word on the grapevine (and I stand to be corrected etc...) is that Lara will be handed the reins of the WI team again.

So if AND ONLY IF you have a few shekels down the back of your sofa or you discovered in an old pair of pants you were going to wash and you can do without it, you might want to place a small bet that he gets appointed for a 3rd time.

Really a resumption of the 2nd stint that was cut short for non-cricketing reasons.

Don't hold me to it though!!

[Mongoose]

The job of WI captain is cricket's poisoned chalice at the moment. A captain of a losing side will be criticised, regardless of the personnel at his disposal, and the WI is very weak right now. If I were Lara, I'd be making it clear I wanted to concentrate on my batting for the remaining years of my career. However, I'm not Lara, and I'm sure there will be many people who are urging him to take the role. I'm not sure that Lara's the greatest when it comes to captaincy, but who else can WI pick? Dwayne Bravo is an intelligent cricketer, and he could captain the team one day. However, Lara's stature is so immense that it is difficult for anyone else to captain the team without feeling that they are still in the great man's shadow. I think he might take the job for a couple of years before finally handing over the reins and possibly putting is bats away for good.

[Ninjaman]

Refused apparently, Sarwan in the frame

[Moss]

How much longer before WI cricket implodes?

It's very sad, seeing a one great cricketing force suffering like this.

I wonder if anyone from the Windies will go and watch the world cup? They seem to prefer their football nowadays.

[Ninjaman]

West Indians have always liked football.

It is not a case of preference.

As a schoolboy, I remember playing in and watching under-19 football games where the spectators could number up to 10,000. And this is not for finals or semi-finals but games between schools with a strong rivalry.

Yet the under-19 cricket game would barely musted 100 spectators if that.

And this at the height of WI cricekting power.

There are approx. 5-6 million West Indians so more than one sport can have a following.

In football, Jamaica qualified for the World Cup in 1998 and Trinidad and Tobago for the upcoming one because their boards came up with
1) a plan,
2) identified the correct personnel to carry out that plan and,
3) utilised the talent at their disposa efficiently.

In short, they got their acts together.

Exactly the opposite of what the WICB is doing now.

Frankly, even if you got every single FC, Test and ODI game in the Caribbean packed to the rafters, issues like a heavily indebted board, the amateur level of our FC competition, the part time professional status of our cricketers. the incompetence of many of those intrusted to run our game and, largely, our inability to be able to compete financially with the likes of England, India or Australia, would still be there.