Philo Wallace is not happy with Jason Holder's promotion as new Test captain
It seems that the debate surrounding Jason Holder being appointed as Test Captain is not going to die anytime soon, ever since Holder was handed over Test captaincy a few weeks back, there has been mixed reactions from former West Indies cricketers and in general, the cricketing world.
Now, former West Indian batsman Philo Wallace has suggested that Holder’s appointment as Test Captain would be a burden for the young cricketer. Wallace has stated that Holder had leadership qualities but was a little premature to lead the squad.
"Jason has shown good leadership qualities so far, but I think to put him as Test captain at the age of 23 is just not right", Wallace was as quoted saying by CNNIBN. "He has not led Barbados in the PCL (Professional Cricket League) and to give him the captaincy in the longer format without the experience is too much at this stage in my opinion. Jason has a tremendous amount to offer West Indies cricket, but we must be careful that we don’t push him too soon, which I think is what is happening here”.
Two former West Indian captains Sir Vivian Richards and Brian Lara had earlier come out in strong support of Holder being nominated as Test skipper, with Lara even calling his appointment as an ‘excellent choice’. While former West Indies coach Ottis Gibson and Wallace have strongly disagreed with the selectors’ decision.
Wallace however, felt that with Holder’s appointment, it would be a Catch-22 situation in the Barbados team, which is captained by Kraigg Brathwaite.
"When you look at the Barbados set up, Kraigg Brathwaite is the captain of the team in the PCL. Kraigg, who was put as understudy to Ramdin remains the vice-captain and this is also puzzling to me. He is the captain of the Barbados team in the longer format, Jason plays under him and now he will play under Jason in the Test team,” Wallace opined.
"This puts the Barbados Cricket Association in a very interesting position and they will now have to decide whether they continue with Brathwaite as captain or remove him and put Holder,” he added.
Earlier in September, 23-year old Holder was named as the captain of the West Indies Test team by the selection committee headed by Clive Lloyd, replacing wicketkeeper-batsman Denesh Ramdin, who was sacked from his role. Holder will lead the squad against Sri Lanka in the sub-continent, beginning next month.