Graeme Smith, the former South Africa captain who took charge of his country's Test fortunes as a callow 22-year-old in 2003, hopes that Jason Holder can put the team politics to one side when he takes over as West Indies' Test captain for the first time in Sri Lanka next month.

Holder, 23, was named as Denesh Ramdin's successor for the two-Test series that gets underway in Galle on October 14 after displaying impressive leadership credentials at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand earlier this year. Coming only months after a pay dispute led to West Indies' withdrawal from their tour of India in October 2014 - a move that landed the WICB with a multimillion dollar bill for compensation which is still being thrashed out - the team battled back from an early defeat against Ireland to reach the quarter-finals, where they eventually lost to the finalists, New Zealand.

Despite his tender years, Holder has already received the endorsement of one of the region's greatest players, Brian Lara, who praised his "demeanour" during that tournament and likened his stature to that of a young Clive Lloyd.

read more at ESPNcricinfo

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What was "impressive" about Holder's leadership during the World Cup?

In reply to mikesiva

he lead the team away from the tournament in style!

In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com

In reply to openning

Difference is that even during that 3-4 years time SA was expected to win and they did... It is just that it took 3-4 year for him to get complete control of the team and results.

We started with the route of "Losing is not a big deal" from the time Lara left. Inspite of his exeptional performances West Indian teams loss was on his head. He was called a good player but not a good captain since he could not win more.. But today we hear winning is nothing. If that freedom was given to Adams / Hooper / Lara WI would not have been where it is today.

In reply to Pacy

Were we winning with Lara?
The slide started a long time ago, Viv was the last captain to unite the team.
Lara had a clique within the team, so please dont mention BCL when it come to leadership.

I for one think the uniqueness of the West Indies, is so much different from England, Australia and the cricketing world.
We have ten Islands playing together as one, with the board having to have two directors from each Island, who runs the cricket.
Who does the president reports to?
Holder will have to establish himself into the team, by scoring runs and taking wickets, before he can get respect
Sir Frank earned respect for fighting for the under-class, scoring runs and taking wickets, llyod lead a revolution, by playing world series cricket and scoring runs, Viv's record is welll documented.
All three wanted a united West Indies and lead from the front.

In reply to openning

The slide started long back but still the team was "EXPECTED" to win under Lara. Lara was called a poor captain because he lost to the Aussies / English / Indians against whom WI was expected to win.

When was the last time WI was expected to win a series? Even the administrators, Selectors, Captains and fans today had agreed WI will not win for another 5 years and all we should look forward to is one good innings by a young bat or a good spell by a bowler.

What result do you expect out of the SL tour?

In reply to Pacy

A draw in one of the games would be good.
I am mostly looking at how these youngster progress, since the series against Australia.
Samuels has to be the batting leader, and Roach has to be a partner for Taylor, for this team to win a match.

In reply to openning

Wat team did Viv unite?

In reply to Maispwi

The West Indies under his captaincy.

I do know some Guyanese would like to tarnish his legacy, but the players that played for and with him, speaks highly of his leadership.

In reply to openning

That is the essence of what I am seeing now. Until Lara, even his fans wanted and expected a win. But now we are tuned to a level where we cannot even think about a drawn test.

Even Bangladeshis are talking about winning and their fans demand victory. I just saw a post on how Aussies will find it tough in Bangladesh. That is the reason they are moving up and we are moving down.

You are as good as what you want to be. I agree that we might need 5 years to be a strong force but that does not mean we expect to not win anything for 4.9 years and become a champion on the lt mont

In reply to Pacy
The biggest problem is the development of players at the youth and club level.
Playing at the regional level is a place for all players to showcase what they have been learning
Playing more cricket with bad habits, and against average opponents will not help in anyone deveopment

In reply to openning

That is true... That is the reason I had been saying for long that the Senior team has to be left alone and the focus has to be on the regional cricket's development.

But WICB has been destroying the WI senior team continuously without understanding, whoever they select at the moment from the regional pool is not going to change WI chances ever.

It has been more than 4 years since WI has moved away from the Senior players and had been inducting youngsters... Even the best among them Lil.Bravo / Brathwaite / Gabriel / Holder are still learning at the highest level. Most of the others have gone missing.

Like you said in the SL series WI would be dependant on few with Exp (Samuels / Roach / Taylor).

If WI had left the senior team along and completely directed their complete focus on improving the FC cricket, Pitches, marketing we might have had a system that can produce better prepared players who can get into the International cricket and replace the existing players or supplement them. Tampering of the WI senior team all through the last 8 years has not given any progress. Afterall even when nothing happened we got Taylor, Bravo, Gayle, Sarwan, Samuels during the previous 8 years.

In reply to openning

Holder is Sammy Part II....

In reply to Pacy

I know you believe that what you are saying is making sense, but I am afraid it is. You seek to defend Lara by saying that he was the last captain expected to win. By saying that, you concur with those who say that the expectation of losing was introduced by him.

In reply to openning... you read what Pacy said?

... inherited a united team. And sometimes winning over shadows what really going on in the team ... no?

In reply to openning...

... and how could/can a captain fix that?

In reply to forcricket... huh? Jus say you nuh understand what him saying and if him can clarify.