Andy Roberts believes Kieron Pollard should be captain instead of Jason Holder
Legendary West Indian fast bowler Sir Andy Roberts believes Jason Holder was the wrong choice of captain and he believes it should have been Kieron Pollard that should have been given the armband.
“I think they should have not given the captaincy to Jason Holder. Personally, I would have given captaincy to Kieron Pollard. There is talk he doesn’t play four-day cricket, but he has better average than most of the players. I would have given captaincy to Kieron Pollard,” he said.
Although Pollard hasn’t played a Test for West Indies, Roberts believes that he is a better choice than the inexperienced Holder. The all-rounder averages almost 38 in 27 first-class matches and has scored four hundreds with a highest score of 174.
Roberts even had his say on Mohammad Amir, who is posed to make his comeback to international cricket. When asked about whether players involved in corruption should be given a second chance, he answered in the affirmative. “Everybody should get a second chance... But why is it (that) only players suffer?”, the 64-year-old said.
The fast bowler also added that he would have loved to be a part of the IPL. “Only four overs to bowl, I would have loved (to),” he said.
West Indies aren’t even competing anymore: Roberts
Roberts also added that West Indies aren't even competing anymore and added that they cannot continue to cite the constant dispute with the board as a reason for their poor performances.
The Windies are currently in dire straits in their series against Australia, as they have failed to give the hosts a tough fight in the ongoing Test series, and their decline has been evident since the team abandoned a tour of India midway through the ODI series in 2014 because of a long-running pay dispute.
“It doesn’t make me emotional, it is very sad and disappointing to see the level that West Indies cricket has sunk to,” he said. “And I am going to not lay the blame totally on the Board, but I will lay the blame on the feat of the players, because the players have to take up responsibility to develop their cricket, so that they can have positive results.
“You don’t have to win, all you have to do (is) to compete, but at the moment we (West Indies) are not competing, definitely not competing,” he added.
The fast bowler also believes that the ICC should have done something during the crisis in 2014.
“The ICC (International Cricket Council) should have intervened a long time ago with the administration of West Indies cricket. When they had the problem of cancelled tour of India, the ICC should have intervened then. There is no point of the ICC intervening now... It’s a West Indian problem,” he said.
“And we hope that good sense would prevail with the administrators, so that we can get some of the former players involved with development of the cricket, not the administration...the development of cricket.”