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Copy Worrell and Sobers, not Border
Published on Apr 12, 2017, 11:12 pm AST
By Rudi Webster

A recent article in a Caribbean newspaper hinted that West Indies captain Jason Holder is too nice a guy to get the best out of his players. It suggested that he should get tougher with them and adopt the sergeant major approach that Allan Border, a former Australian captain, used with his players. This thinking is quite appealing but is very shallow. Border was a champion batsman but he was not a great captain; he was no Mark Taylor or Steve Waugh. So why recommend that approach to Holder when two Australians who coached the West Indies team already used it with little or no success?

Why indeed should Holder copy Border? What is wrong with the leadership of Frank Worrell and Clive Lloyd? These captains were firm when they had to be but were not sergeant majors. They were in fact very nice guys who preferred the carrot to the stick. Their achievements are exceptional. They brought together a diverse collection of talented individuals who lacked direction, common purpose, self-discipline and self-belief and turned them into a highly disciplined, motivated, professional and all-conquering unit that dominated world cricket for two decades.

In their own way, Worrell and Lloyd achieved two great victories. First, they got rid of the debilitating self-image and the limiting self-beliefs that had been stifling the talent of their players and second, they removed the cancerous effects that insularity, bad habits, poor excuses and outmoded traditions had on teamwork.

Some might say that Holder’s players lack the talent of the players from the Lloyd/Worrell era. That may be partially true. However, when Worrell’s young team went to Australia in 1960 few had any kind of reputation before they arrived, but when they left they were all stars or superstars, each with an enhanced self-image, powerful self-belief and a strong will to win.

From the beginning, Worrell reminded them about their latent talent and emphasized that they would beat Australia if they played with discipline and commitment.

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