On August 5 2016, West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) came up with yet another shocking announcement when they decided to remove Darren Sammy from captaincy of their T20I side. Sammy is the only player to lead his team to the coveted title in World T20 twice. His unceremonious sacking led to lots of speculations and protests in his home town St Lucia, but WICB stood firm by their decision. Carlos Brathwaite, who hit those four colossal sixes to seal the deal for his side in World T20 2016, is their new skipper; he will take charge when his side faces India in a two-T20I series in Lauderhill, Florida, USA. Full Cricket Scorecard: India vs West Indies, 1st T20I at Lauderhill
Why the change in captaincy at the first place?
It is a humongous task to read the mindset of WICB. In fact, it is near-impossible. This is a reason why there is regular friction between board and players. Given the inexplicable decisions, players do not feel secure with their place in the team. There have been incidents when the players were not given their remuneration, seniors were removed from the team and youngsters were included out of nowhere.
Of late, West Indian selectors have a knack of handing out captaincy duties to anyone randomly. Sammy was also made captain when he was not an established entity in world cricket. Jason Holder followed him, once again after not doing anything extraordinary in his short career. Sammy always remained confined as a quiet performer. He has seldom bowled his full quota of overs. He batted at Nos. 6, 7 or 8 where he did not have much to do, or, at most, play a crucial cameo or two.
How, then, was he different? What standout quality did Sammy possess as a leader? He has always been charismatic and cheerful on and off the field. With the players being insecure about their place in the team, he has always been seen injecting faith and confidence on them unselfishly. ALSO READ: WI 2-0 win will displace India from No. 2 spot
Sammy was happy to allow others to step up and back them up to the fullest. He celebrated with his teammates after every wicket, led from the front every time he walked out, and got involved in every possible celebration with his team. He has been expressive. He kept the team united, especially in the shortest format. His sacking was pointless, but WICB probably thought of moving on and handing over the role to someone young and capable of carrying the mantle. Still, Sammy could have been in the team; unfortunately, it was not the case when the squad was announced for the series against India. However, Sammy took his defeat in his stride and teetered away silently.
What others options did WICB have?
If your lineup consists of Dwayne Bravo, Lendl Simmons, Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Samuel Badree, Andre Russell and Marlon Samuels, it is difficult to choose a leader. Since Gayle, Bravo and Samuels have been in bad light with WICB, the board probably had to choose between Russell or Kieron Pollard (who was not there in World T20I squad but has been picked to play against India). Pollard has experience of captaining his team in CPL, but it was perhaps his absence in World T20 that WICB settled for Brathwaite, another newcomer in the side who has still not cemented his place. Only 8 T20Is old, Brathwaite’s selection only strengthens WICB’s image of selecting captains out of nowhere.
Brathwaite: Another out-of-the-blue decision from WICB?
Brathwaite has no experience of marshalling teams. Every decision has to be backed by definite plans, but that does not seem to be the philosophy of WICB. West Indies have managed to win trophies due to the emergence of T20 cricket as it suits their style of play, but are fading away rapidly in other formats, which is all the more reason to have well-defined reasons to choose captains. ALSO READ: Bravo ‘excited and nervous’ about his Bollywood singing debut
Teams like India and Australia perform well and are forces to reckon with in modern day cricket. A lot of that had to do with thinking captains. Whether it was Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli or Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and Steven Smith, both teams have always been led by players with steady head on their shoulders along with some experience. ALSO READ: Carlos Brathwaite: Darren Sammy gave me his blessings ahead of West Indies T20 captaincy
On the other hand, West Indies do not believe in pondering a lot while choosing captains. Holder may be a great player in the making but before giving him captaincy in Test cricket, but he needs to deliver on consistent levels and get used to the grueling format. Has he done that yet? The answer is NO. West Indies have to start from scratch, and Holder does not look to be a person in charge of youngsters off the field.
Coming back to Brathwaite, he has a great team in hand, but has not proved himself to be a quality leader. He has not even been tested in international level leading established players. He did remarkably well to dispose four consecutive balls out of the park in a crunch ICC final, though all those balls were in the slot, asking to be hit. Apart from his four sixes, he has not done a lot in international cricket. There is no doubting his ability but it is a whole new responsibility to lead players who know their job well, at least in T20Is. It will be interesting to see what he brings to the tables or else will be another random decision taken by WICB.
(Aditya Sahay is a journalist with CricketCountry who is completely into sports and loves writing about cricket in general. He can be followed on Twitter at adisahay7)
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