IF JASON HOLDER wants to be on cordial terms with almost everyone involved in West Indies cricket, he is well on the way to fulfilling that objective.
If he wants to make a difference, though, if he wants to be a transformative leader who can at the very least slow the decline, or even drag the senior regional men’s team kicking and screaming back towards competitiveness and respectability, then he needs to do things differently.
Okay, so it may not be in his nature to get up into the face of his teammates or to be almost tyrannical. He won’t be the first, though, to have changed his attitude to captaincy – should he ever decide to go in that direction – with the realisation that elite-level international sport is about getting results, and in many cases getting the results or pulling talented but errant players into line means casting aside the pally-wally demeanour and telling everyone where to go if they can’t get up to mark.
Australian cricket’s highest honour in their annual awards is the Allan Border Medal, for good reason. Border is the man who, almost single-handedly, lifted the Australian team from the pit of mediocrity and complacency into which it had slid by the mid-1980s following the departure of three of their all-time greats, batsman Greg Chappell, fast bowler Dennis Lillee and wicketkeeper Rod Marsh.
As a player, Border was the friendly, easy-going type, playing the game the hard Australian way but almost always courteous towards the opposition in his six years on the international scene before he replaced Kim Hughes as Test captain. A tearful Hughes stepped down after the all-powerful West Indies of that era had administered yet another hammering to the home side in Brisbane in the second Test of the 1984-85 series.
There was no immediate transformation, as Australia continued to struggle for the next couple of seasons. However, Border realised the enormity of his task from the outset. Posers who took their places in the side for granted were weeded out. Those who weren’t prepared to go the extra mile or failed to appreciate the privilege of wearing the Baggy Green were made to understand that it could not possibly be business as usual if they wanted Australian cricket to be back up among the very best.
It wasn’t just about getting tough characters in the side prepared to battle for the cause, but becoming, if truth be told, an obnoxious so-and-so with anyone associated with the opposition. It earned him the nickname “Captain Grumpy”, not that he cared in the least because his objective was to regain respect for Australian cricket after it had declined to a laughing stock.
With the support of former Test opener and team coach Bob Simpson, someone almost equally admired and reviled in his homeland for his involvement in Australian cricket because of his personality, the transformation started to bear fruit.
First there was the World Cup triumph in India in 1987, defeating England in the final in Kolkata, followed by the reclaiming of the Ashes in England in 1989. Then came the greatest challenge of all: conquering the West Indies, the most fearsome force ever unleashed in the history of the game.
Arguably the most acrimonious series ever played in the West Indies saw the home side coming away with a 2-1 triumph in 1991. Then in what would prove to be his final series against the Caribbean side, he was two runs away from finally getting his hands on the Frank Worrell Trophy when the West Indies snatched it from his grasp with a one-run win in Adelaide and an innings triumph in Perth to take the 1992-93 series 2-1.
Two years later his successor, Mark Taylor, would famously lift the prize at Sabina Park to end West Indian invincibility and herald a new era of Australian dominance. It hasn’t been as continuous as it was with the West Indies, but thanks to the Border-infused attitude, they have so far avoided the prolonged slumps that other teams suffer or the deep depression that the former champions have been in for more than two decades, even with a Champions Trophy and two World Twenty20 titles.
Can Holder be that type of transformative leader?
He obviously cares very deeply about West Indies cricket, although the evidence available so far in the public domain suggests that he may almost have to become a different person to be that sort of demanding sergeant major who demands and expects more from himself and his team . . . or else.
At the moment he is perceived as a nice guy who tries hard, who takes defeat well and says all the right things. Not that the alternative is being another obnoxious so-and-so, but who wants to be remembered as a nice loser?
Fazeer Mohammed is a regional cricket journalist and broadcaster who has been covering the game at all levels since 1987.
