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BERMUDA | RSS PODCAST

Windies the kings of Hollywood cricket

This past week saw the West Indies win the Twenty20 World Cup, defeating hosts Sri Lanka in a very low scoring final. Many around the world were taken by surprise, considering it a big upset.I have to admit the West Indies took me by surprise too, but I never doubted they would be competitive due to the aggressiveness that they display when it is not warranted, in the longer version of the game.During the Twenty20 I couldn’t help but notice most countries had a different captain than normally, basically selecting their captain due to the style or format of the game. Is this something that we too in Bermuda should consider?This format of the game, Twenty20, certainly suits the West Indies style of play. They play hard, aggressive, attacking cricket, regardless of the format, which is why they tend to struggle in the longer version of the game.T20 cricket in my eyes is “Hollywood” cricket; it’s merely there for entertainment purposes and nothing else. Personally, I don’t even think it warrants having a World Cup tournament. I would rather see a World Cup Test tournament to really show us who the best team is in the world, where you have to think cricket, break the game down and disrupt the plan of the opposition.I make it no secret that I am not a big fan of West Indies cricket. I firmly believe that their cricket lacks discipline and is tactically poor in the longer version of the game.Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to take away from their accomplishments for what they have achieved is nothing short of remarkable.However, it is the style of cricket that the current West Indies team have adopted that finds them struggling in the longer version of the game, hence the reason why they are currently rated seventh out of the nine Test playing nations.In watching the finals, one shining light did glow for me in the West Indies team, Marlon Samuels. I hope our cricketers were watching the final and in particular the mental toughness of Samuels which eventually won West Indies that game.Batting under pressure and being able to execute is a skill we as a country need to improve upon massively and Samuels did this extremely well along with his consistency in the tournament.If only he could get some of his team-mates to bat with the poise and tenacity he displays then the West Indies would certainly be a team to reckon with in all versions of the game.In this shorter version of the game, it does still take a leader who can think quickly under pressure and change the game plan ball by ball if need be. Having a different captain for each version of the game makes me ask the question, is this something we as a country should be looking to employ also?If Stephen Outerbridge is made captain of our one-day team then I would say yes we should have a different T20 captain. In my personal opinion, Stephen’s game is built just like that of Alistair Cook, the England captain who only captains the Test and 50 over team. His game is about patience, building and crafting an innings. This is Stephen’s natural game and so he should focus solely on performing in the 50-over format of cricket.Rodney Trott would be my pick to captain the T20 version of the game. Rodney, better known as Picnic, is an all-rounder who is by far Bermuda’s number one spinner and guaranteed a spot in all formats of the game.Rodney is a student of the game and reads the game really well. He has shown in previous tournaments that he can be more aggressive, but not reckless. A thought would be to also have him as vice-captain in 50-over matches.Whoever is chosen as captain and vice-captain has the daunting responsibility to put faith back into Bermuda cricket. They will have to be 100 percent committed to the programme and lead by example.Here is a quote from a past cricket great: “When a player is just a player, he should act in a responsible, respectable manner and be very supportive of the captain because when that player becomes captain, players will always remember him for how he acted when he was just a player and not the captain”.