Chetram Singh backs Chanders to lead WI

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is not yet confident that Ramnaresh Sarwan can be the next West Indies captain.

They believe incumbent Carl Hooper should stay in the job at least until the end of the Sri Lanka series. If not, a leading executive member of the West Indies Cricket Board, Chetram Singh believes that Shivnarine Chanderpaul should get the job. Singh said Sarwan was still too young to be given the job of West Indies captain. “He needs to improve his overall game first and work on certain areas of his batting. As well, he has not as yet had any experience in captaining Guyana, so it may be asking too much. “In fact, I have to say that asking Sarwan now could be like killing him, giving him such a large amount of burden at this time, we must be fair to the youngster. “He is indeed a quick learner and he can be anything in the future. But he needs time,” said Singh, who is also President of the Guyana Cricket Board. Singh believes that the underrated Chanderpaul should be considered.

“After Hooper, the next most qualified person has to be Shivnarine Chanderpaul. He has a fine cricketing mind and has been a very successful captain of the Guyana national team, he thinks about the game and has a lot of experience,” said Singh. “In terms of his talking to the media and other matters, there is a manager and a coach and there are ways to work around those things. We have to be aware of that, but we should not let that hold him back,” he noted. Singh revealed as well that when Chanderpaul, with the overs running down in the crucial one-day match against Sri Lanka was caught on the boundary going for runs, he did not know then that Ramnaresh Sarwan was going to be able to bat. “He was never given that message, but instead he asked Vasbert Drakes to play a holding innings, and that he would take the chances,” said Singh

“As far as Chanderpaul understood it, Sarwan was said to be okay and not seriously hurt but he was never told he was padded up, otherwise things would have been different and he would have probably allowed Drakes to go after the bowling instead at that stage,” Singh remarked. As to the current match with Guyana and Windward Islands, Neil McGarrell was retained as captain because there was only one match left in the preliminaries. “Chanderpaul and Sarwan, before his injury, attended our last meeting and you could hear the way that Chanderpaul spoke that he knew what needs to be done to win a match in cricket,” he added. Hooper is expected to return to captain the Guyana team if they reach the last four, following the enforced two-week break recommended by the medical staff of the WICB.