Source: Trinidad Express
From the very moment Nicholas Pooran was appointed CWI white-ball captain, the general feeling was; too much too soon.
The panel that made that decision had no logic or sense of history regarding West Indies captaincy, but it was felt by the officials that it would have been a popular choice among Caribbean cricket lovers.
Unfortunately, young Pooran was probably delighted with the appointment and saw the glory of being the West Indies white ball captain. However, he may have been well advised to consult senior ex-players who may have advised him differently. In short, he was thrown in at the deep end. The weight of the job affected his confidence, his batting deteriorated and not leading the T&T franchise in the Caribbean Premier League did not help.
If the appointing committee had checked with previously appointed captains they would have seen that almost all had the opportunity of gaining captaincy experience at the club level and leading their national sides in the regional West Indies competition.
From way back in time, this has been the case, all the way from R K Nunes through to Brian Lara, Jimmy Adams, Carl Hooper, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Darren Sammy, Denesh Ramdin and Carlos Brathwaite. That leadership component Pooran just did not have.
My nominee for T20 West Indies captain would be Rovman Powell, who has demonstrated his capability beyond doubt after successfully leading his CPL franchise Jamaica Tallawahs and the regional franchise Jamaica Scorpions to two titles.
Powell displayed good captaincy with the bat and ball when his team was under pressure and his personal leadership skills had the backing of his entire squad.
In choosing my One-Day International captain, I have followed the line of being consistent and since Shai Hope was the previous vice-captain to Kieron Pollard for well over a year, he would be my ODI choice. I am aware that he was criticised for not being aggressive enough recently in Antigua in the CWI 50-over competition but it will be fair to say that Hope may have been leading what was possibly the weakest Barbadian side, with over a half-dozen players missing on West Indies duty.
To conclude my thoughts on West Indies cricket in 2023, I would have liked to have seen at least two rounds of our unsponsored first-class season be played before leaving for South Africa and the first-class season being competed on their return. That will not happen now, given Cricket West Indies’ recent announcements about the upcoming season.
However, our first-class season remains the shortest in world cricket and I would like to humbly suggest that senior West Indies cricket officials, working with the good officers of the cricket-loving president Irfan Ali of Guyana, seek to arrange a meeting with Exxon mobile officials towards finally solving the problem of lack of sponsorship – as Shell did so wonderfully well in the 1970s.
—Reds Perreira is a veteran cricket commentator