Former Guyana and West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan has come to the rescue of the regional team’s current Test and One Day International (ODI) skipper Jason Holder following Caribbean side recent series loss to the Australians Down Under.Holder, who replaced Denesh Ramdin as the test captain for the West Indies in October 2015 for the two-Test series against Sri Lanka, nine months earlier was handed Dwayne Bravo’s spot at the helm of the 50 over team.

And Sarwan, who succeeded the retiring Brian Lara as captain of the regional side in 2007 believes that the youngster was tossed in the deep end.
“He’s a real good kid; I don’t think they should have given it to him. I think they should have probably kept Denesh (Ramdin) as captain and give him (Holder) some more time even if they wanted him as captain,” contended Sarwan.
Sarwan’s comments were echoed by many pundits across the region who felt that the 24 year old’s appointment, both as test captain and as ODI skipper, was premature.
Nonetheless, the 35 year old had words of advice for the Barbadian.
“Continue to be strong. Australia is a very tough place to play and I think getting beaten in Austrailia, he shouldn’t be too ashamed as a captain; obviously I don’t think it’s easy to send such a young team out there and a captain as well to play Australia”, said the Guyanese.
He backed Holder in moving forward, telling the media that, “Nevertheless I think that he would learn from it and he would mature and get better.”
The West Indies lost the Frank Worrell Trophy for a second decade running when they failed to beat the Aussies down under following an innings and 212 run loss in the first Test and a 177 run defeat in the second Test.
The whitewash was avoided however, following the drawn third Test, which was marred by a two washout in Sydney.

By Stephan Sookram