I saw the Lord standing beside the altar and he said, smite the capitals until the threshold shake and shatter them on the head of the people and what are left of them I will slay with the sword. Not one of them shall flee away not one of them shall escape. – Amos 9:1
AS I SAT IN THE Haynes and Greenidge stand on the second day of the Test match between the West Indies and Pakistan at Kensington Oval, I came to recognise that although the West Indies team is very young, it can be developed into a very strong and good one for the future.
This goal can be achieved because captain Jason Holder no longer has to be looking over his shoulder at players like Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Bravo and Jerome Taylor.
By the way Taylor has come out of retirement and has asked to be considered for Test duties once again. As for this writer, I will not take him back.
Managing people is not an easy thing when they are older than you or have been in an organisation before you. It should be much easier to manage the present crop of players, because they are around the same age range.
Some of the players like Roston Chase, Kraigg Brathwaite, Shai Hope and Shane Dowrich were at Combermere School together. The captain would have played under-19 cricket with most of them and they would have known each other for a long time.
At the time of writing (Monday night), I do not know what will be the results of this second Test but I will make some changes for the third Test which will be played in Dominica.
The bowling needs to be strengthened, therefore I will play Cummins as the third pacer to replace the batsman Vishaul Singh and I would drop either Shimron Hetmyer or Shai Hope for Jermaine Blackwood.
Congratulations are in order for Roston Chase on scoring his second Test century. We must also congratulate Jason Holder for the captain’s knock he played.
