The Talented Mr Ridley

Nothing much separates the recent captaincy records of Brian Lara and Carl Hooper (see table below).

If Lara retains the captaincy throughout this tour of England, Lara and Hooper will have played the same number of games - a win for Lara will give him the edge, anything less than two draws in the last two Tests will see Hooper with the better record.

A closer look shows Lara's four series wins came in 1-0 results in two-game home series against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, a 1-0 result in an away two-game series against Zimbabwe, and a 1-3 result (winning the final game of what was a dead rubber) in a four-game series at home to Australia. Even in those series where he notched a win, one would suggest they should have done better.

Carl Hooper's four wins came in the final game, again a dead rubber, of a four game series at home to South Africa which they lost 2-1. An away win in a two-game series against Zimbabwe (1-0). So far not much difference. But he did lead his team to victory against a major team ? India ? in a home five-match series that they came from behind to win 2-1.

Lara has yet to win a major series in his second stint at captaincy. Hooper was deprived of a chance to improve his record with a series against Bangladesh in a series which saw Ridley Jacobs lead the side to a 2-0 away win. The team hadn't won two games in an away series since 1996-7 when they lost 3-2 to Australia and hadn't won an away series by winning twice since 1992-3 when they defeated Australia 2-1 in a five-match series.

Quirky decisions seem to be Lara's trademark. Inserting England at Lord's reminded me of Hussain's disastrous decision to bowl at Brisbane ? except at least England were playing five bowlers with a view to dismissing Australia (ahem). Lara, with just four bowlers unused to English conditions and the slope at Lord's, seemed to be protecting his batsmen even though they are considered to be the strength of the team.

However, one could at least understand a desire for a captain to give his inexperienced team the chance to ease themselves into a Test at HQ by fielding first. What was more surprising was the decision not to bowl his best bowlers straight after lunch allowing the inexperienced Strauss and Key a more comfortable restart and to go on and set a partnership record and personal bests into the bargain. Such decisions abound in Lara's period at the helm.

I think the Windies were wrong to replace Hooper when they did, particularly the way they did it and thought Lara was the wrong choice to succeed him. It is of course too late to recall Hooper even if Carl was willing, and the obvious replacement now seems to be Sarwan but there is another choice:

Now a 2-0 win in Bangladesh is not conclusive, (my posting of his record is not entirely serious), but it is better than Lara's result against the Bangladeshis at home where the Windies have been considerably stronger of late. If I were one of the Windies selectors I would be pushing for Ridley to be the next Test captain. He has been a solid performer, he is the hub of the team, an automatic selection, has plenty of experience and is generally free from the blame for recent poor performances.

At 36, he would be a stopgap leader, but the team is rebuilding. Given that he's just been left out of the one-day setup, it is highly unlikely he will be promoted in the longer game.

Sarwan's form looks fragile so the last thing he needs is to be saddled with the responsibility of leading a losing team and replacing Lara's runs if Brian takes his bat and ball back to Trinidad after being stripped of the captaincy. When he's not batting Chanderpaul looks an unlikely leader, Gayle's recent indiscretion suggests he may not be the man to lead the team away from the nightclub into the practice ground and none of the other players is regular enough to be given the captaincy.

The only other team change I believe that the West Indies need to make is to move Chanderpaul up the order. He has been a rock in the line-up and playing your most immovable batsman at 5 ahead of the worst tail in cricket reminds me of Graham Thorpe's role for England during the 90s. Other than that, increased fitness, improved ground fielding and consistent selection will see this Windies side fulfil its considerable potential and move back into the pack of teams chasing Australia rather than languishing in no man's land above only the substandard Zimbabwean and Bangladeshi teams.

* Paul Brewer and Phil Austin publish the Cricketing Sabermetrics weblog.