Trinidad & Tobago Newsday article.
Port of Spain, Trinidad - Outgoing West Indies skipper Denesh Ramdin hopes the selectors give new Test captain Jason Holder better resources during his captaincy tenure starting with next month’s two-Test series against host Sri Lanka.
Ramdin becomes the second Trinidadian to be removed as captain in spurious circumstances and reasons by the Clive Lloyd, Courtney Walsh and Eldine Baptiste selection panel,- following Dwayne Bravo’s change as oneday international captain after last year’s abandoned India tour.
After the controversial three-year reign of Darren Sammy as Test team leader, which had the side arguably unbalanced in its playing XI, the 30-year-old Ramdin was chosen as captain for the 2014 home series versus New Zealand.
This was the last act by former Guyanese chairman of selector Clyde Butts on the strength of Ramdin’s leadership qualities at the youth and senior level for TT and with the Amazon Warriors in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
Fifteen months and 13 Tests later, he has been axed but Ramdin noted yesterday that Holder will have his full support.
“Firstly I would just want to congratulate Holder on getting the captaincy,” said Ramdin.
He continued: “Obviously it’s never easy to lead the West Indies especially in these troubling times but I will give my full support.
I am very happy with where I am in life personally, so I will continue working on improving my batting and ‘keeping going forward in order to make my best contribution to the team. I’m not stressing about losing the captaincy.” Ramdin explained that in conversations with selectors he was told the statistical fact of him scoring 472 runs in 13 Tests at an average of 22 in charge, was the main reason behind his removal and that they wanted him to concentrate more on scoring runs.
Before attainting captaincy, Ramdin was excellent with the bat from the 2012 England tour to the 2013 New Zealand tour, scoring 587 runs in 10 Tests at an average of 45.87, including three of his four Test hundreds.
Ramdin countered that argument, stating he could have had better resources at his disposal.
“From day one it was always pressure leading (the) team, not all (the) best players were available due to various reasons and teams that selectors gave me.
So yeah, I think I could had gotten better resources.
Hopefully they give that to Jason,” Ramdin explained.
Notably in Ramdin 13 Tests in charge, due to a combination of injuries, clashes with IPL and Champions League as well as questionable selection choices, Ramdin never got to properly utilise the skills of Dwayne Bravo, Sunil Narine, Chris Gayle, Andre Russell, Ravi Rampaul, Kieron Pollard and Lendl Simmons in Test cricket.
This handicap was best highlighted when the selectors decided not to select Narine for the 2014 home Tests versus New Zealand because he didn’t return from the IPL where his team was playing in the final.
First Published In The Trinidad & Tobago Newsday.