The Redemption of Captain Kraigg
After the West Indies had taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in their three-match series of England’s 2019 tour of the Caribbean, WINDIES captain, Jason Holder, was suspended for the final game in St. Lucia, due to the team’s slow over-rate in the second Test. Vice-captain at the time, Kraigg Brathwaite, had then taken charge of the team for that final Test, one which they went on to surrender inside four days by 232 runs.
Following the series victory and what was Brathwaite’s fifth loss in as many matches as stand-in skipper, I wrote, “While there have been many opportunities to point fingers at Kraigg as a captain in the past, this is not one such instance. Brathwaite was so much more ‘present’ in the field than he had ever been while leading the team previously; one might even argue that the team let him down. Still, who could disagree with the reasoning that it might not be in the team’s best interest to burden him with leadership duties? If such a decision is indeed taken, this Test should not be the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Still, that proved to be Brathwaite’s last shot at captaining the West Indies—as Holder was ever-present—before he was replaced by countryman, Roston Chase, as deputy leader, almost two years on. But as fate would so have it, when both the West Indies captain and new vice-captain declined the invitation to travel on this Bangladesh tour—though out of necessity and convenience it might have been—Brathwaite was handed a second bite of the leadership cherry.
