Kraigg Brathwaite will replace Jason Holder as the West Indies Test Captain with a two-Test series against Sri Lanka coming up this month, Cricket West Indies said Thursday.
Brathwaite has previously led the team in seven Tests while deputizing for Holder, including in the recent 2-0 Test Series win away to Bangladesh.
“It is a huge honour to be given the Captaincy of the West Indies Test team,” Brathwaite said. “I feel extremely proud and humbled that the Board and Selectors have given me the opportunity and responsibility to lead the team.
“The recent Test Series win in Bangladesh was a fantastic achievement and I’m really looking forward to the upcoming home series against Sri Lanka and I’m excited about what I believe this team can achieve in the future.”
The squad for the first Test against Sri Lanka, scheduled for March 21-25, will be announced on Friday.
Roger Harper, CWI lead selector, said selectors were impressed that in Bangladesh Brathwaite “was able to motivate his players to play to a very high level and create the culture we are looking to establish where the team showed a collective determination to fight and a real hunger for success.”
Holder, the 29-year-old who was named captain of the Test team in 2015, was one of several players who opted not to tour Bangladesh because of Covid-19 related concerns.
The current number one all-rounder in the ICC Test rankings, Holder captained the West Indies team in 37 Tests, leading the side to 11 wins, five draws and 21 defeats.
“On behalf of CWI, I would like to thank Jason for all he has given to the game in the region while serving as Captain of our Test team,” CWI director of cricket Jimmy Adams said. “As the world’s leading Test all-rounder, we all believe that Jason still has a tremendous role to play in West Indies Test Cricket for many years to come.”
Brathwaite is what can be termed a captain by default. He basically inherited the leadership position after the favored Holder waved the white flag and begged out. Kuddos to Holder for recognozing that he does not posses the sea legs and temperament that is required to steer the West Indies ship.
I sincerely believe the West Indies will benefit greatly from this captaincy move as the shy and reluctant Holder, widely recognized as one of the world’s top all-arounders, will now be able to focus more on his batting and bowling.
Brathwaite, on the other hand, will hopefully realize a boost in his ability to lead by example through more consistent and productive batting. Go Windies!!!
This decision is like a knee jerk reaction!!!
Let’s hope Holder, arguably the best cricketer on the team, will react positively with bat and bowl. If the decision demoralises him, them the West Indies will continue to plummet lower and lower.
I like inconsistent Kraigg Brathwaite, but Papa Bondieu, “One swallow does not make a summer”.
The selectors are blind like those laborites that keep voting Skerrit even if he has brought Dominica to ICU, if not to the grave. Apart from the series win against the worse team in the world what has Brathwaite, who was stripped of the vice captaincy for the New Zealand tour done? In fact it was not his captaincy that won the first test because we were completely outplayed in the first 4 days of the test until the Bangladesh captain declared prematurely and Myers, Bonner and De Silver shocked the world. In the second test seeing we couldn’t lose the series, his captaincy was better. But should we reward him for that series win? Was he the captain that beat the mighty England in 2020? No, it was Holder and the game Brathwaite captained England won it. In fact Holder won 30% of the 37 games he captained compared to Brathwaite won below 30% of the games he captained and his batting average dropped to a shade over 20 runs. Is he the right man? Where is his report card?
The next big announcement we will soon hear is Jason Holder is not available and is now playing in the IPl like Russell. I think West indies could do without Kraigg Brathwaite but I don’t think we can do without Holder, the number 1 all rounder in the world. Therefore I would prefer Holder to have a sure pick as captain instead of Brathwaite who still has not done enough of late to cement his pick. Holder in my opinion didn’t fail as captain too many times as it was his batsmen starting with Brathwaite that kept failing
So if Sri Lanka bits us in the caribbean will they take the captaincy from Kraigg Brathwaite? How did they expect Holder to succeed as captain when his best batsman Brathwaite keeps failing and has not scored a test century since 2018? How do we win games when in four innings in new Zealand his highest score was 24? Here is a quote from Cricinfo I like: ” Although West Indies lost many home and away series under Holder’s captaincy, many former West Indian cricketers appreciated Holder’s efforts as a captain because his team lacked experienced players such as Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels.”
What then has changed? We black people tend to forget fast. It was just a year ago many felt Kraigg Brathwaite shouldn’t have been selected for the England tour because of his poor form and today he as captain he has a sure pick? I don’t think Kraigg is ready because he has not been getting runs. As our key batsman his average is 32.57 while Holders who bats at # 8 is 32. Who is the failure?
Good….now let the players who toured Bangladesh get a chance to play against Sri Lanka. Let the superstars sit on the bench. I would rather take my chance with players who are committed to the team than those who think they are too big for West Indies cricket.
I hope they select the new wicket keeper from Trinidad.