...who is a possible replacement for Roston Chase?

I'd love to see Chase succeed and remove the cloud over his head as both captain and place in the squad.

There aren't many viable options.

Will a batting consultant and some time off, after the series bring a turn around for the beleaguered skip? I really do hope

@InHindsight

yes....the windward island cupboards have historically been bare.

@Jumpstart

Do you take ever take life seriously.

Brw

How's life in yardie country? Things getting better for you and family?

@InHindsight

He not in Yardie city. On the other end of the Caribbean, the twin island nation that is partially responsible for inching the Caribbean/Latin America into a War Zone.

Chase needs to return to R4D and score runs. In the meantime relinquish the captaincy and fight for a spot. Hope or Greaves can take the leadership role. Chase is more suited to limited overs. Jason Holder would be abetter pick as an allrounder batting at 6,Greaves at 5. He needs to takes tips from Holder who gets a good stride forward and is a good judge of length.,

@InHindsight

Let's look at the players who applied for the captaincy role for the test team.

1 John Campbell

Just back from a suspension and no real experience,

2 Tevin Imlach.

Just started his test career and totally unproven

3 Justin Greaves

Showed that he can step into the Jason holder role and has consistently fair in both batting and bowling, appears to have a strong day on the field.

4 , Rosten Chase, dropped from test squads due to poor performances did not play a test in two years.

5. Jomel warrican.

Improved bowling especially in friendly conditions, rose to the top pick in that area.

6. Josh Da Silva. Very consistent behind the stumps but batting trailed off a bit, showed huge promise when leading the B team especially away in south Africa against a very strong SA team that now backbones the currant test team.

He also was the highest scorer for us in that series which shows he can step up when he is the leader. Very vocal and encouraging on the pitch.

Now, in the name of God how did they select who they did.

We have a bigger problem than just finding a captain. We can't seem to find a captain who can maintain his place on the team.

Our First Class batsmen make centuries and double centuries yet struggle to average 20 in Tests. It's obvious they are not equipped to perform at the highest level.

Someone suggested more A team games. Perhaps we can give that a try because the strategies we're employing right now aren't working.

@Fivestar

We have a great U19 process throughout the Windies.

We have an extremely poor first class and white ball system, post U19.

We cannot fix test cricket without fixing the problems that exist post U19.

The key to our senior issues is out postU19 cricket formats.

1. A teams tours.
2. Proper red and white balls completions.
3. Putting together plans to attract sponsors.

Until we fix our local cricket, we will not fix out test, T20I and ODI teams.

There is probably a lack of stand out candidates but personally, I would go with Joshua Da Silva as captain and a role as a middle order batsman. Tevin Imlach retains the gloves as he is an excellent keeper. His batting will improve over time but him keeping allows Hope to focus solely on his batting - a move that patently works.

Chase is not a test player, end of story. I like the guy but only in the shorter format.

@TanteMerle

An excellent post. Especially the focus on the A team level cricket, that needs to be drastically expanded and given much more focus.

@4REALQUICKS

Agreed. That is what I have been preaching for past few months. I would work on following:

1. Fix the pitches in the Caribbean to an international standard. We can start with 3 venues in the firfst year and then roll that out to all the other venues.
2. Keep the regional FC season to one round (i.e. each team plays the other once). Add a President's XI to regional teams to replace the Academy and CCC teams. This will be a "best of the rest" team that is picked by the WI Head Coach based on nomination from his talent scouts.
3. After the one round of regional FC, do the Headley Weekes series with the best 39 players from the regional competition.3 teams x 2 rounds.
4. From the Headley Weekes 39, we pick the A squad of 15 and try to do at least one away and one home tour per year (both red ball and white ball).
5. Above will mean that the best 15 regional players will get possibly 18 FC matches per year.

@PalsofMine

1. Fix the pitches in the Caribbean to an international standard. We can start with 3 venues in the firfst year and then roll that out to all the other venues.

the only good legacy of cameron's time at the top. The pitches improved markedly. and they have digressed just as much since he left. the barbados pitch for the 2009 england test was one of the best in this region in decades. offered something for both bowlers and batsmen.............which showed how much trash that england side was when confronted by pitches that didn't flatten out totally after day one. i thought it was very unfair that both the antigua at st lucia pitches got bad ratings by the icc in that series because england couldn't bat on it

@PalsofMine

In general, this is a sound plan. For me though, more A team cricket needs to be played - obviously, greater sponsorship would be required to assist in such efforts but four series per year would give the better regional players sufficient exposure to a higher level of cricket.

The surfaces have improved over recent years but only ever so slowly. More needs to be done.

The Headley-Weekes idea is something that needs to be regular and I like your idea regarding limiting the regional four day tournament, to bring the cream to the top, then repeat the process via the Headley-Weekes schedule. That way, players are not just going straight from beating up poor bowling on dull tracks into a green top in a test match.

Raising the level domestically will also help to draw more people back to watch the game they love. The passion is still there.

@4REALQUICKS

if we can raise the standard of regional cricket, the crowds will follow. Look at Athletic Champs in Jamaica or Intercol football in Trinidad. People come to see good quality sport. And even little things like playing day night matches for Headley Weekes thereby making the times more accessible to spectators who work or go to school can help.