Well done WICB

Tony Becca ON THE BOUNDARY

The selection committee of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), or rather, the Board itself, has finally seen the light.

After nearly four years of trying 'a thing', the Board has come to the conclusion that that is not the way to go, that a team of Test cricketers, of cricketers who are generally not so good, is made up of 11 players, and not 10 players and another, especially if the other player is not an exceptional captain, or leader.

In 2010 when the West Indies were the beating stick of the world and after they had gone through the likes of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Darren Ganga, Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo, the Board called up all-rounder Darren Sammy to do the job and he did it, or attempted to do it, for almost four years.

The selection of Sammy was questioned by many because he could not make the Test team as a batsman or as a bowler and neither could he make it as an all-rounder.

automatic selection

Sammy's presence in the team, as an automatic selection, meant the team, with none of their batsmen hardly known as bowlers, would, if it maintained its normal form, go into a Test match with six batsmen, one wicketkeeper and only three bowlers, with Sammy as the fourth.

The other option was to select a team with five batsmen, one wicketkeeper and four bowlers, with Sammy as the all-rounder.

The problem with the two teams is that one would be short of a main bowler and the other would be short of a specialist batsman as Sammy was neither a frontline bowler nor was he a good enough batsman. In fact, on a number of occasions, his inability to bowl his quota of overs suggests that he knew of his own limitations.

brilliant fielder

Sammy is a brilliant fielder, he is a useful bowler in limited-over cricket, he can be a devastating batsman in limited-over cricket, he is, tactically, an average captain, he is 100 per cent a team man and it is good that he has been retained as the T20 captain.

As the West Indies Test match captain, however, as the captain of a team trying to find some good players and a team desperate to find the winning way, he was a misfit, as his figures suggest: 38 matches, 1,323 runs, one century, five 50s and an average of 21.68, with 84 wickets at 35.79.

The man replacing Sammy is Denesh Ramdin and congrats and best of luck to him.

Ramdin, a West Indies Youth captain, Trinidad and Tobago captain and once vice-captain of the West Indies team, walks into the captaincy apparently well qualified for the job. He is an experienced cricketer, a very good wicketkeeper and a solid, fighting batsman coming in at number seven in the batting order.

keep an eye on Ramdin

As the West Indies captain, however, West Indians will have to keep an eye on him for a while. Ramdin has shown signs of behaviour unbecoming, not so much that of a player, but as a captain, as the West Indies captain and as a regional leader.

There have been a few reports of Ramdin appealing for catches which, it is believed, he did not take. In the rough and tumble world of international cricket, however, that sort of thing happens regularly and that does not matter to me, at least not too much.

What bothers me is that he shows respect for others, especially for those who have gone before, those who were great, or who became legends, those who served the region and in doing so became heroes in their home country.

Ramdin blotted his copybook in 2012 when he attempted to embarrass Viv Richards, a batsman so great that he is considered by many next to Don Bradman as cricket's best ever batsman, a former captain of the West Indies, now Sir Vivian Richards, and national hero of Antigua.

Richards was working on radio during the third Test at Edgbaston when Ramdin completed his second Test century, took out a bit of paper from his pocket and held it for the television cameras to beam around to the world.

Ramdin's batting failures

Richards had commented on Ramdin's batting failures before and during the series. Ramdin, who had been performing poorly with the bat for some time, felt that the criticism was unfair and said so on the bit of paper which, obviously, had been written in preparation for the moment.

It was totally uncalled for and embarrassing to a great West Indian, one who was speaking the truth at the time, one whom the likes of Ramdin and other West Indian cricketers should always remember and respect, if only for Richards' cricketing exploits, not to mention his place of honour in his country.

Ramdin must consider himself fortunate to be so honoured despite his attempt to belittle, before the cricket world, a national hero from the West Indies.

The captain of the West Indies, the captain of the regional team, has a responsibility which transcends cricket. The captain of the team, a West Indies team and of this West Indies team, must lead in the manner of a Frank Worrell, or apart from the Australian tour in 1975-76, a Clive Lloyd.

Much has happened since 2012, however, and apart from the Board telling, or reminding Ramdin of his responsibility, the hope is that he has developed fully and that West Indies cricket will have the services of a good leader - a good wicketkeeper, a fairly good batsman, a good, tactical captain and a good West Indian man, like Darren Sammy.