Playing for Lancashire, Clive Lloyd was in the middle of a game against Yorkshire at Leeds in 1974 when, surprisingly, he received a call from Daily Mirror correspondent, Howard Boothe, congratulating him on being made West Indies captain. He was elated, he said, though it was a peculiar way of receiving "one of the most important pieces of news in my life." According to Lloyd, captaining the West Indies was the dream of almost every Caribbean boy. To celebrate, he had a few drinks with his Lancashire teammates that night.
Barbadian all-rounder, Jason Holder, currently in charge of the ODI team, was recently appointed captain of the West Indies Test team. And Lloyd, now Chairman of Selectors, must have ensured that the new captain would not have been informed of his ascension in such a circuitous manner.
Like Lloyd, Holder is likely to have been elated, and might have celebrated with friends as well, for even in these days of hardship for West Indies cricket, captaincy is still a great honour. Unlike Lloyd, however, he inherits a side near the bottom of the pile and travelling on a trajectory that does not suggest an immediate upturn.
CRICBUZZ