Former Jamaica and West Indies spinner Nehemiah Perry has posited the view that Cricket West Indies (CWI) was short-sighted in its appointment of Kieron Pollard as the captain of the West Indies limited-overs teams.

Pollard, the 32-year-old Trinidadian, was named captain of the West Indies One Day International and T20 International teams recently, replacing Jason Holder and Carlos Brathwaite in the formats, respectively.

Perry, while speaking  on a local radio program, argued that a younger person should have been given the job.

“I would have gone another way and have a vision to see five, six, ten years down the road and go to a younger player such as Hetmyer, or young (Kraigg) Brathwaite. But I would think Hetmyer is someone you could mold into a leader; he captained the Under-19 team and won the World Cup so you could look at him,” he said.

In announcing Pollard’s appointment, new CWI president Ricky Skerritt said the Trinidadian was the right man at the right time to take West Indies white-ball teams forward.

Pollard is a destructive lower middle-order batsman as well as a useful medium-pacer with subtle changes of pace. He made his ODI debut in the 2007 World Cup against South Africa. He currently averages 21.5 in T20I and 25.72 in ODI and boasts best bowling figures of 5 for 36 in First-Class cricket.

On the other hand, Perry argued that the new Skerritt-led CWI administration should be given some time to settle in.

“It’s early days yet. They have a mandate and some of the things they are trying to implement they think they should take a different route to change the fortune. It’s not heading in a good direction, but I still think we can give them some more time to see where it ends and then we can make a true and serious assessment of the leaders,” reasoned Perry.

Nigel Bell, Readers Bureau, Fellow

Edited by Jesus Chan

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