FORMER GOVERNMENT MINISTER Hamilton Lashley has no-balled the appointment of Trinidadian Kieron Pollard as captain of the Barbados Tridents in the inaugural Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
Lashley, who quit elective politics earlier this year after serving as a Member of Parliament for the St Michael South East constituency for 19 consecutive years, strongly believes a Barbadian, preferably Dwayne Smith or Kirk Edwards, should be named as captain instead.
“I want to say that I have a great difficulty with a Trinidadian captaining the Barbados franchise in the upcoming CPL,” Lashley told WEEKENDSPORT yesterday.
“They have retained the name Barbados, so I believe a Barbadian like Smith or Edwards should be captain.
“I feel it is fundamentally and psychologically wrong. It affects the psyche of some Barbadians,” declared the former Minister of Social Transformation.
Pollard, one of the most sought after T20 cricketers in the world, was chosen as the West Indian franchise cricketer for the Barbados-based squad, which is coached by legendary West Indian opening batsman Desmond Haynes.
“I understand the concept of the whole CPL but the principle is flawed. I believe Barbadians should embrace Pollard but not as captain. It is an insult to the intelligence of Barbadian players at that level. Smith just captained the West Indies “B” team in T20 and should be the captain of the Barbados franchise,” Lashley said.
He further pointed out that the Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana and St Lucia franchises are being skippered by one of their compatriots with Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Darren Sammy, respectively, leading those teams.
Jamaican Marlon Samuels, is however captaining the Antigua franchise in the CPL, which starts at Kensington Oval on July 30.
Another West Indies player, Trinidadian Sunil Narine, was earlier named as the franchise player for Guyana, but they will be captained by Ramnaresh Sarwan.
However, Lashley, who refers to himself as “the Rastaman from the Pine”, also, said he was disappointed it took so long for the Caribbean to have its own T20 league after the Stanford Twenty20 Tournament was inaugurated in 2006.
“The brilliant minds in the Caribbean under the Stanford administration appointed a group of legends to formulate and redesign T20 cricket.
“The remodelled version of T20 cricket was started in Antigua in 2006 but the Indians copied every aspect of it. They should be sued for copyright infringement,” he charged.