'Being Captain is Very Hard' - Nagamootoo

Guyana captain Mahendra Nagamootoo said that his team will need to improve in all areas of their play when they oppose points leaders the Windward Islands today in the third round of the Busta Cup cricket competition in St Vincent.

Guyana are at the bottom of the points standings without a point, a place normally reserved for the Windwards who have shown a marked improvement in performance over the last few years.

In contrast, Guyana tend not to do so well when Carl Hooper and to a lesser extent Test players Colin Stuart, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shiv Chanderpaul are absent as is the case on this occasion.

Mahendra Nagamootoo

??

Leg-spinning all-rounder Mahendra Nagamootoo is Hooper's replacement as skipper but he has been unable to fill the void created by the mercurial all-rounder's absence.

Guyana, under Nagamootoo have crashed to consecutive outright defeats against Busta Cup champions Barbados and Busta International Shield champions Jamaica. And Nagamootoo's captaincy has been under scrutiny in both games.

"Being captain is very hard. One cannot think of everything at the same time," Nagamootoo told Stabroek Sport adding that it also affected his batting and bowling.

The lanky leg-spinner who has represented the West Indies at both Test and one-day levels confessed to feeling a bit of pressure when batting.

He also said he has to think twice about bowling changes since he has to consider whether he must take the ball himself or give it to another bowler.

However, Nagamootoo told Stabroek Sport that he was starting to deal with the captaincy better than in the first game, after the team's second match against Jamaica at Sabina Park.

Nagamootoo declaring that he was "starting to enjoy it," added "the fellas are helping me Reon (King), Mc Garrell (Neil) and some of the younger players as well."

Nagamootoo added that he was receiving full cooperation from the team. He confessed that initially he was a bit frustrated after the team lost to Barbados, but said the experience was a "learning process for me."

Nagamootoo said as captain he has to shoulder most of the responsibility. He has had previous experience in the position after leading Guyana in the Nortel Under-19 tournament in 1995 in Grenada when Nicholas de Groot got injured. He has also captained Berbice for a number of years.

Nagamootoo feels that it is essential that at all times he gets the full co-operation from all the members of the team including the manager and coach.

Despite the team's poor performance so far Nagamootoo has identified some plusses for the team as the fightback engineered by Andre Percival and Homchand Pooran in the first innings against Barbados and the century opening stand between openers Azeemul Haniff and Sewnarine Chattergoon in the second innings.

He also singled out the bowling of Mc Garrell who grabbed nine wickets in the match.
Against Jamaica, he said it was the batting of Pooran, Haniff and Lennox Cush although he lamented the fact that they did not carry on to score hundreds.

While the batting has been a bit disappointing Nagamootoo said, the bowling improved in the game against Jamaica with Cush sending down good spells and improvement shown by King.

* SOURCE: Stabroek News.