BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):
WORLD-ACCLAIMED cricket commentator Tony Cozier is proposing that batsman Wavell Hinds be given captaincy of the West Indies team.
Hinds is among seven regional players drafted by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the University of the West Indies (UWI) for a leadership-training seminar this week, and Cozier believes he is the best candidate now in an important search for a team leader.
Cozier does not favour Shivnarine Chanderpaul retaining the captaincy, suggesting that it showed on the Australian tour that the solid Guyanese left-handed batsman does not have the full support of the players.
BACKLASH
"Shivnarine Chanderpaul was elevated to the captaincy as a direct result of the WICB-WIPA (players' contract) impasse. He remained loyal to the board, distanced himself from WIPA's position and led a revamped team to Sri Lanka when the other leading players withdrew," Cozier wrote in his weekly column Cozier on Cricket in the Sunday Sun newspaper. "But he felt the backlash in Australia where he clearly lacked the necessary support of all returning pro-testers and was manifestly uncomfortable in the position."
Cozier said a "strong, mature and experienced individual who won't abide discord and nonsense is essential", and proffered the 29-year-old Jamaica captain for the job.
"Wavell Hinds is the one who presently best fulfils these criteria. If his record of five hundreds and an average of 33 in 45 Tests is modest, it is no worse than others who lay claim to his place. At the moment, leadership is the most essential element in West Indies cricket," Cozier wrote.
NO POSITIVE EFFECT
Cozier added that captains have been changed so frequently in the past decade, with no positive effect, that the selectors might regard another as futile, but he urged the decision makers to address the issue quickly and set the platform for some steadiness in team leadership as they embark on the critical months of build-up to Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007 in the Caribbean.
"With such an important occasion as the World Cup imminent, they (the selectors) must know that whoever they, and the board itself, decide on now must be at the helm at least until then (CWC 2007), hopefully beyond - and announced as such," he said.
Hinds had a very brief stint as West Indies vice-captain a few years ago, serving as deputy to Ridley Jacobs for the December 2002 Bangladesh tour, which regular captain Carl Hooper missed because of injury.
The selectors are expected to meet in Barbados today to pick a squad for the tour of New Zealand that starts mid-February.
