Kudos for Windies’ Pollard and Holder

BRYAN DAVIS

CONGRATULATIONS to Kieron Pollard and Jason Holder for being recognised by the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack (WCA) for their achievements on the cricket field for 2020.

This publication of Wisden’s started in 1863 and is published annually. When it celebrated 100 years of publication in 1963, the West Indies (WI) were touring England. In honour of this, Wisden’s publishers donated a trophy to be presented to the winner of the West Indies and England Test series, for them to hold until the next encounter.

For next year’s Test clash between the two countries in the WI, there will no longer be a Wisden trophy. It has been replaced by the Sir Vivian Richards/Lord Botham trophy in honour of the two great friends who met when Richards joined the playing staff of the Somerset County Cricket Club in 1974. Their bond has been strong and unbreakable over the years. Plus they were both captains of their respective countries' Test teams.

I believe that the honour now given to Englishman Ian Botham and West Indian Viv Richards is apt and suitable for future confrontations of the two Test sides which have been competing against each other since WI achieved Test status in 1928.

It is indeed a great honour for former West Indian captain Holder to be recognised by the WCA in 2021 as one of the Five Cricketers of the Year. And, at last, it is welcome to realise that Wisden has also identified the present limited-overs captain, Pollard, for his accomplishments in T20 cricket last year.

Holder was saddled with the captaincy of WI six years ago at the tender age of 23. He is a fine cricketer; nonetheless, his cricket would have progressed and risen to the top much earlier, had he not been burdened with that responsibility. I remarked before that he certainly possesses the ability, but, at the time he was handed the reins of captaincy, he had not as yet cemented his place on the team. He was talented enough, though, to continue and be an important part of the future of WI cricket.

The same selectors did not identify and comprehend the qualities of Pollard as a cricketer, a talented batsman, useful bowler, excellent fieldsman, with the knowledge and personality to be a future captain. In his first few four-day games for TT, Pollard struck a couple of brilliant centuries. One was against Barbados, away from home, where Tino Best, a top West Indian fast bowler at the time, was severely punished, plus, he did the same to the Windward Islands bowlers at the National Cricket Centre, Balmain.

Because of these great innings of well-timed strokes and punishing shots over the boundary, then a superb innings of 83 not out to help win a T20 final for TT at the Stanford ground in Antigua, selectors compartmentalised him as a limited-overs player, condemning him to that format. Hence, they never appreciated the fact that he would pulverise bowlers in any cricket, including Test matches. Four years older than Holder, he would have been the man to captain the team while Holder was developing his game.

Anyway, it is what it is; hopefully, WI can gradually improve their game to emerge from the rut they have been in for some time.

Holder is there as a matured cricketer whose experience would help lead the way, although he’s not a natural leader himself. His fault is in his indecisiveness caused by a lenient, easygoing attitude.

At present, Kraigg Brathwaite has fitted into the role quite efficiently. He has a way about him that helps his players respond to his leadership. The personable Holder, however, is there to assist him and from all aspects, it looks as if he prefers that role, almost as a mentor rather than as the decision-maker.

I believe that Brathwaite, because of the circumstances and having to build a team of his own, felt he had nothing to lose, while the newcomers on the team, longing and having got their chance, rallied around the captain and gave their all.

They have done a great job. And now, there will be no better way to celebrate the distinction given to former Test captain Holder and present limited-overs skipper Pollard than for more success in all formats – also, as a way to thank Wisden and to welcome the Richards/Botham trophy.