Ramdin Talks Captaincy
Mon, Apr 20, '15
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This interview was conducted during the 2014 Limacol Caribbean Premier League)
Denesh Ramdin’s partnership with Jason Holder built a foundation on which the latter capitalized, helping the team to draw the 1st Test against England in Antigua. The West Indies Captain batted at number 7 and scored 57 in the second innings, after being out for 9 in the first innings.
Spectators have seen snippets of Ramdin’s batting ability in all versions of the game. In the 2014 Limacol Caribbean Premier League, he was denied the opportunity to further showcase his batting skills when the Final was called off. Leading up to that match, he had amassed 250 runs as Captain of the Guyana Amazon Warriors, with a top score of 84 in the exciting match against the Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel, which Guyana won.
It was during that tournament that we spoke with Ramdin on a variety of topics, including batting and the difference between Test and T20 captaincy.
You have also captained the West Indies T20 team three times and you’re the current [Test] Captain. What is the difference between captaining a T20 match versus a Test match?
A Test match is very different from a T20. T20 is a more fast paced game where you have to make changes every ball in order for your plan to work and try and stay ahead of the batsman. In Test Match, you have to set the field and wait and hopefully the batter falls into that plan and now in T20, guys just come out hitting 6s and try to go after the bowler, try all different types of shots, you have to change the field every other ball, make sure you have a bowler who cannot go for more than 8 or 9 runs per over and in Test match, you can spread the field, have any amount of guys in the boundary, slow the match down and put pressure on a batter.
You had told me nine years ago that you tend to concentrate better when you are Captain. Do you still feel that way?
Yeah, once you have the players, you have the extra responsibility to go out there and lead from in front. I always like leading from in front. I had some scores in the Test matches which I was hard on myself. I could have gone on to get probably 70s or 80s. I got starts in all the matches. I was just disappointed not to carry on. It is difficult to get starts in Test matches and not carry on.
I think T20 is different. Sometimes you may not feel that you have the best of form but couple balls off the middle of your bat and you never know. You could go on to be the top run scorer in this tournament. I don’t think you need to be a big Kieron Pollard or Chris Gayle to accumulate runs. If you bat smart and hit the ball in the gaps, you have good outfield, good pitches, you could get runs.
You mentioned those two. They’ve had a lot of experience in the IPL. I was looking but I didn’t see….you’ve never played in the IPL? Is it something you would have wanted to do?
Maybe in a couple years to come. It’s very difficult at the moment being a ‘keeper and not getting the opportunity for West Indies to bat higher up. Played a couple times for Trinidad & Tobago in the Champions League and I got some runs there, so I think that experience obviously I will take that into this tournament as well. Playing out there, the pitches are quite different to these ones that we have there, still a bit slower. You get good pitches out there.
So I guess this tournament [2014 CPLT20] is quite good for somebody like you and others who haven’t gone to a lot of T20 tournaments like the IPL.
The IPL and the Champions League are similar tournaments. They have all the teams from all over the world coming to meet up. In 2009 was it, we lost in the finals against New South Wales. So from that then we had a little experience. We been to South Africa once, there are different type of pitches there. So I think most of the guys would have played some sort of T20 format. You have a few who played for Mumbai Indians and Bangalore so all these players have that sort of experience and it coming to the table, it is very good for the Amazon Warriors.
What do you think about the organizers of this tournament starting it last year [2013] and continuing it?
I think it is great for West Indies cricket in terms of every year you are finding some young player coming through. This year young Jermaine Blackwood, he represented the West Indies in Test Matches; you have Sheldon Cotterell as well breaking through on the scene; you had Jason Holder, so hopefully in this year’s tournament you will have 4 or 5 new faces so that the Selectors could have a look in the shorter format of the game and going forward.
But what do you say to the people who say that T20 cricket is not really the ideal format for people to build their skills and technique, to start out their career in?
It’s not the ideal thing but I think when you look at all the cricket playing throughout the world, there are players who bracket off themselves as T20 or One Day players now and it’s up to the individuals where you want to go and if you are good enough to play all formats, why not? There is a saying that if you can play Test match then you can play all formats of the game. So hopefully our 4-day format this year, it’s more games and that should augur
well in terms of players going out there and getting more runs and building their confidence so that when they get selected for West Indies, they will have more runs under their belt and they will have more confidence to go into a game rather than three and four First Class games. Then you can play two years and have 20 – 25 games.
So basically any experience is good experience.
Yes, I would say so. Before I played for West Indies, I played a couple matches in England, club matches, and I think I did well over there because of the conditions.
Ok. You had also told me back in 2005 when you weren’t Captain that when the team does poorly, the Captain should take most of the blame. Do you still feel that way?
Yeah, at times but at the moment everyone always blames the Captain for the performances. Sometimes you have to share it because of the players’ positions to win games or put the team in a better position to win a game and have to get some criticism for it. When the team does well, very rarely you hear that the Captain does well or congratulating the players who made a century or took 5 wickets. At the end of the day it is how you go out there and manage the team, how you think the game and make your team mates feel they are good enough to be here and win matches.
What is your style in terms of leadership when the team doesn’t do well and you lose, back in the dressing room? What does Captain Ramdin do?
I try to take the positives out of the game that we lost, show them where we lost the game, where we could benefit from it and how fast we can learn from it and go forward. I am very cool and calm and don’t like to shout a lot in the dressing room. As an individual, you know where you went wrong. Just show the players that and try not to be too hard on them. Some players you need to deal with them differently because two persons are not the same.
Lendl Simmons had this to say about you when you were named Captain of the West Indies Test team. “Denesh has shown his best under pressure. He gives you the impression that he can come out of any fight on top and this is what you need from a leader.” Can you comment on that?
Me and Lendl have been playing cricket since U-15 World Cup in 2000 in England, a lot of U-19 cricket, senior team and now West Indies team. I think it’s just that I try to be as relaxed as possible and try to think through situations. I believe most times, 75%, I came out on top, thinking back about certain things that as a player you need to do although T20 is very fast paced game, you need to sit back for a couple seconds and always think and have a second option; what to do when you are in trouble.
There is a lot of thinking; it’s very challenging - thinking keeping captaining. Sometimes there are mistakes in there but you have to work around it.
You have been Vice-Captain for many years as well so how has that groomed you to be Captain of both the Guyana team and the West Indies team?
I think it was good, as well as captain of Trinidad & Tobago. It was a good experience knowing what I am coming up against, trying to be as relaxed and calm under pressure because I know In Test match cricket you don’t pick up a lot of wickets sometimes you pick up two or one wicket per session. You have to really concentrate, remember your plans, there are really good players out there. You can’t let your concentration slip to make a mistake to give anyone chances.
Tony Cozier in his ‘welcome article’ to you, described you as an astute tactician.
Yeah, I would say so. You need to have the proper armoury. You can’t go to war with one or two soldiers. You need to have the proper bowlers, the proper batsmen to go to war. Players who will stand up for you and fight, and bowlers who will always want the ball, and you would like fielders who will dive for your team and put yourself in the position where you don’t not necessarily have to put them but they could think as you for themselves so it makes my job easier and when you have players like that, you will go places and you have more time to think and focus on my game as well as the opposition.
You are finding your way around Twitter.
It’s good fun sometimes, when you having funny moments you can put it up, bad moments as well, you get your fans coming and cheering you on and other people who follow you as well.
As a Captain do you set policies for your team mates as to what they can tweet or post on Facebook?
Not really. It’s an individual thing; it’s up to you how you go about doing it. Some players a-l-w-a-y-s always on Twitter. Very funny things they put, on the field, off the field, on the bus, in the dressing room. It’s good fun at times.
I read a tweet when you were announced as Test Captain, Chris Gayle was one of the first people to congratulate you and give you his support.
Chris is a very funny guy, down to earth, always sharing his experience. We always talked, he’s at 1st slip and I’m ‘keeping. When he was in charge, I gave him that full support throughout his career while I was there with him. He is just a guy who if I drop a catch, “keep going, relax.” When I made my first century he was captain at the time and he congratulated me. He is one of the senior guys, one of the greats of the game. So I really look up to him.
Where did you get the nickname Shotta? Who gave that to you?
I think it was Sherwin Ganga from Trinidad & Tobago and Wavell Hinds. We had a one day tournament, 50 over, and I just came out and first ball I hit for 4 and also the second ball and they came out and it’s like “you keep playing shots, don’t stop.” But I think that day everything was just happening and they kept saying “shot, shot” and that name stuck.
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