Davis describes Holder appointment as unfair

www.newsday.co.tt
FORMER TRINIDAD AND Tobago and West Indies opening batsman Bryan Davis has described the appointment and subsequent use of Barbados all-rounder Jason Holder as captain of the regional team, during the recent ICC Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, as unfair.

Davis, in a recent interview, noted, “I think it’s unfair for them to have put Holder to captain a team in a (World Cup) and even in South Africa, at this time in his cricket career because Holder is learning about cricket.

“He is a good cricketer, I think he is a good all-rounder for the future (but) he was not an established player on the side. He was trying to get into the team and he wasn’t any surety nor certainty. So he didn’t get that chance in South Africa and even in Australia to develop his own cricket because he had the responsibilities of captaincy.”

Davis went on to state, “I believe, because of his own self-confidence, he would make a good captain in the future. He’s not a good captain right now, I didn’t expect him to be. They pushed him there too quickly and he didn’t develop.

“It was a very important decision and a responsible decision to go and put a youngster to captain a team that (was) unprepared for the World Cup, and leaving out two uplifting elements like Pollard and Dwayne Bravo. That was totally unfair to the young man.”

Reflecting on the West Indies quarter-final defeat to co-hosts New Zealand, Davis said, “I think it was a pathetic performance. You could size it up in the way Johnson Charles got out. He’s opening the batting for the West Indies, he’s quite outside the leg stump swinging at a ball that is outside the off stump. To me, that shows exactly what is the mental attitude of the West Indies cricket team. Nobody went in there and (took) their time to play.

“Look at (Martin) Guptill, he played a couple balls, he got dropped at square leg, which I thought was a sitter by (Marlon) Samuels, a catch which should have been taken. He continued playing and at no time you saw any swiping until he got the pace of the wicket and he played himself in nicely. Then he started to accelerate after that (to reach an unbeaten and World Cup record 237).

“And that’s how cricket should be played. And we don’t have a clue how to play cricket. It is so pitiful, these batsmen don’t know how to bat again. Five I think is too high a position for (Denesh) Ramdin, Samuels has lost his art completely. Generally speaking, the whole batting approach is mentally weak and they were swiping. They weren’t batting properly at all. To get (to) a total like that, they have to bat properly and build their score.”

He continued, “The bowling was too ordinary. I think the bowling is weak anyway. I don’t think it’s a strong bowling side. And I believe the fielding has fallen back so far now, even Andre Russell, in the last couple of games, has been misfielding balls coming straight to him. He’s one of the better fieldsmen. Samuels dropping that catch, (Lendl) Simmons not diving to cut off balls going to the boundary, generally speaking, the whole approach to the cricket was wrong We’re like a losing side and we can’t win. And cricket, if anything, is a mental game, and you have to have self-confidence, the will to win and to be able to perform properly. And we didn’t at all.”

Asked if he sees any light at the end of the tunnel, Davis responded, “None whatsoever, no light at the end of the tunnel. What games (did) we win? We beat Pakistan in a good game when (Jerome) Taylor got the breakthrough and their spirits were up. But the time, in other matches, you saw a little partnership against (the West Indies), you find they just flagged and their shoulders flopped.

“Who we beat? Zimbabwe? UAE? Imagine making a big thing about UAE and we have to hope that rain don’t fall against the UAE and we have to win this match. And we struggled to beat the UAE, we had them 46/6 and they end up making 175. How is that possible? Imagine we made 303 against Ireland and couldn’t defend that? I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. If I do, it’s a train coming.”
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