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Chronology
of WI captains |
"By winning or losing the toss, deciding to bat or bowl, by adopting particular tactics, placing the field in a certain way, by choice of bowlers or decision as to the batting order, he may win or lose a match. The captain of a cricket team must be perpetually involved."
Any good cricketing captain needs also to have a particular feel for the game, to be able to analyse situations and to have the conviction to make crucial decisions at the right moment. But most importantly, he will achieve little if he does not have the respect and support of his players. A challenging role in the region where the game commands widespread respect and where it has played such a significant part in the overall social development of the Caribbean on a whole.
The first individual to captain the West Indies in a Test match was wicket-keeper RK (Robert Karl) Nunes, who led the team for their inaugural clash against England, at Lord's, London, in 1928. Poor form behind and in front of the stumps, coupled with heavy losses in all three Tests, meant that the policy of instituting a captain by the home authority was used when England returned in 1930.
ELG 'Teddy' Hoad skippered the squad in their first home Test, in Kensington, while Nelson Betancourt was the captain for the Port-of-Spain Test. In Guyana, Maurice Fernandes had the honour of guiding the squad to its first Test win while Nunes returned for the fourth and final Test in Jamaica. Trinidadian GC 'Jackie' Grant led the West Indies in 12 successive Tests, betwen 1930 and 1935 while his brother Rolf took over for the 1939 tour of England.
Jackie, at age 23, still holds the distinction of being the youngest ever WI skipper, appointed for the 1930 tour to Australia despite having played no first-class cricket in the Caribbean. A considerate individual and tactically astute, he retired, at age 28, to work as a Christian missionary in Africa and in the WI.
For the home series against England in 1948, the captains were (using the home-captain policy), George Headley (then 38 and the first black to be given that honour), Jeff Stollmeyer and John Goddard.
With a team comprising of Stollmeyer, Allan Rae, Frank Worrell, Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes (the 3Ws), Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine, the West Indies, under the leadership of Goddard, defeated England 3-1 in England.But he relied too heavily on the spin twins, Ramadhin and Valentine for success, and when he retired in 1957, his squad displayed discord, cliques and poor outcricket to lose 3-0 in England.
Between 1952 and 1956, Stollmeyer and Denis Atkinson carried the mantle of captain of the side. Stollmeyer, during the final Test match against Australia in 1952, became the first WI skipper to score a century in a Test, but injury ended his career in 1955. Atkinson took over until Goddard' return in 1957.
A natural leader, his appointment to the helm was queried by those who accused the West Indies Cricket Board of Control (WICBC) of racial prejudice and requested that Worrell be chosen instead.
With tension mounting, FCM 'Gerry' Alexander replaced Goddard in 1958 and one of his most memorable decisions was the dismissal of pacer Roy Gilchrist from the 1958 tour to India due to disciplinary reasons. Alexander buckled under pressure, and he demoted himself as vice-captain to Worrell for the tour to Australia in 1960-61.
Worrell, a graduate at Manchester University took a team of underrated and inexperienced players and moulded them into a cohesive unit whch maintained the great WI traditions.
A shrewd and intelligent person and player, he was able to read the game as well as he can with personalities. His calm, unfazed yet firm mannerisms with a soft-spoken tone, commanded respect.
The appointment as the first black man to lead the West Indies on a tour was not lost to Worrell nor his team. That era corresponded with the rise of political independence in the Caribbean, through the brief span of the West Indies Federation. Even though he was senior to his players, he was able to bridge the generation gap. His first Test at the helm was the renowned tied result in Brisbane and, due to the team's popularity, they were recipients of a ticker-tape departure through the streets in Melbourne, even though the Australians won 2-1.
After he retired in 1963, he was knighted a year later but sadly died of leukemia in 1967. His successor, due to Worrell's opinion, was Gary Sobers, ahead of the vice-captain Conrad Hunte, who later admitted that he harboured thoughts of retiring due to the WICBC's move. Sobers, the greatest allrounder the game has ever known, his 39-match tenure began with great expectations, for the home series against Australia which the hosts prevailed 2-1 with Worrell as the manager.
But the great team was on the decline, with the retirements of Hunte, West Hall, Charlie Griffith, Seymour Nurse and Basil Butcher and the span of six consecutive series and 15 Tests (the last during Sobers' leadership) without a single Test win. A knee operation halted his career and ended his spell as captain. His way of trying to excel with both the bat and the ball succeeded at times, noticeably when he forced England to draw the Jamaica Test match, on a newly-laid strip, but his plans backfired, none more so than the previous Test in Port-of-Spain when his last-day declaration at 92/2 allowed England
to stage an astonishing win, scoring the 215-run target in two-and-a-half hours.
With Sobers under the surgeon's knife, he was replaced by Rohan Kanhai in 1972, and Kanhai, the first WI captain of East Indian descent, had a short-term reign as he was 38 at the time of his appointment. Clive Lloyd took over for the trip to India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan in 1974-75, the start of the most successful reign of any WI captain. The
nucleus of the team comprised of Gordon Greenidge, Viv Richards, Roy Fredericks, Lawrence Rowe, Desmond Haynes, Alvin Kallicharan, Larry Gomes, Jeff Dujon, Deryck
Murray, Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall, Andy Roberts, Colin Croft and Michael
Holding. Their loyalty and commitment to the captain, as well as the team, were vital elements in Lloyd's record of 36 wins and 12 losses from 74 Tests.
Later, he would admit that he modelled his leadership style to Worrell's. "The most important requirement for a successful captain is respect," he wrote, "I have been fortunate that my players have respected me as a man and a cricketer and consequently as a skipper."
And Garner added, on the occassion of Lloyd's 100th Test, "Worrell inspired his men, Sobers led mainly by example and Lloyd combined the best features of both."
A universally respected player, he had to undergo the losses to Australia, 5-1 in the six-Test series, India in 1976 in Trinidad, which gave birth to the 'four-pronged' pace attack, the Kerry Packer series, when Lloyd and his men was replaced by a home-based team led by Kallicharan, and the series loss in New Zealand in 1980, to ensure that West Indies soared to the top.
After Lloyd was Viv Richards, the first player from the Combined Leeward and Windward Islands to be given that honour. Despite injury which forced Greenidge and Haynes to lead on a few occassions, Richards' forthright and brazen manner of leadership ensured that he was the only WI captain never to lose a Test series. Another well-respected player, he was succeeded by countryman Richie Richardson, ahead of Haynes, in 1991.
Richardson's quiet demeanour amidst a volatile team, including batting genius Brian Lara, started with the boycotted Test match against South Africa in 1992 and ended with acrimony after the 1996 World Cup in India, Pakistan and South Africa.
With Lara indiscretions mounting, Walsh was given the baton but poor returns, coupled with Lara's desire to take over, meant that he was replaced by the 'Prince of Port-of-Spain' in 1998.
After a successful beginning, against England in 1998, he was at the centre of two demoralising whitewashes, 5-0 in South Africa and 2-0 in New Zealand. Citing moderate successes, Lara gave way to Jimmy Adams in 2000, but Adams was even treated worse, sacked from the team altogether after a 3-1 loss in England and a 5-0 sweep in Australia. Unlike Lara's hands-on approach, Adams was laid-back (similar to Walsh) and he became the first captain in world cricket since New Zealand's Lee Germon in 1997 to be sacked as a captain and a player altogether.
The new captain is the reborn Carl Hooper, and his spell will begin on Friday, for the first Test match against South Africa in front of his home crowd in Georgetown, Guyana. Only time will tell how much Hooper is judged and how badly Adams will be missed.