Jason Holder- a modern day great?

[Ishikawa]

Not in my memory. Shiv Chanderpaul is one of my favourite cricketers, I'd probably put him at 5 or 6 in any 2000s side. The man had an unbelievable ability to play in a bubble while all around him was going to wrack and ruin.

And yes, Holder is a very fine cricketer and seems a very calm man.

I was / am a huge fan of Chanderpaul, but couldn't justify slotting him above a middle order of that era of Ponting, Tendulkar, Lara, Kallis with Dravid somewhere thereabouts too.

 

[Doodlesweaver]

I was / am a huge fan of Chanderpaul, but couldn't justify slotting him above a middle order of that era of Ponting, Tendulkar, Lara, Kallis with Dravid somewhere thereabouts too.

I can because he did it unaided.

 

[Ishikawa]

I would disagree on that, as I said thought he was a terrific player but don't think he was quite as good as the above and it was only towards the very back end of his career that he could have been said to have been unaided.

 

[Truckosaurus]

His leadership in bringing the side out of the basketcase wreck he was given has been stupendous. And didn't take the easy money route and abandon the team for the T20 circuit.

 

[PhatBoy]

His leadership in bringing the side out of the basketcase wreck he was given has been stupendous. And didn't take the easy money route and abandon the team for the T20 circuit.

As much as I don’t respect pollard, they’ve done the right thing taking the odi captaincy off him though

 

[Ishikawa]

This was a great read on Pollard that came out pretty recently.

A mercenary and a legend

Kieron Pollard's choice to go franchise didn't just make him one of the first T20 millionaires, it also shaped how players approached the format

www.thecricketmonthly.com

In 2010 Pollard took the hugely significant decision to refuse the offer of a central contract from West Indies after they requested that he make himself available for an A tour of England rather than fulfil his contract with Somerset. 'It's a decision that I never took lightly,' he recalled. 'It's something that I sat and thought about.

'I was in and out of the West Indies team for a bit and I had a decision to make: am I going to back myself to play and go around the world, back my performances, take that chance? Or am I just going to sit back in the Caribbean, wait and see what they are going to do with me and when they are going to do it?'

Both options were lined with risk. The West Indies contract offered far more certainty - locking him in for 12 months, but at $80,000 per year it was worth a lot less. On the other hand, the freelance T20 route was far less secure, with contracts lasting only six weeks and determined at drafts and auctions where vagaries of form and fitness play a large role in selection. But the potential rewards were far greater.

A lot came to him in a very short space of time and naturally there's a hell of a lot of scrutiny and decisions to make over that. I can't really begrudge him taking the path he has done.

 

[Damon_3388]

Ideally a full West Indies side would play to their strengths - bat holder at 6, Dowrich at 7, and Joseph, Roach, Gabriel and Cornwall as the bowlers.

Cornwall or Roston Chase? Or both (eg. Chase at 5, Cornwall at 8, both get a bowl)?

 

[PhatBoy]

Cornwall or Roston Chase? Or both (eg. Chase at 5, Cornwall at 8, both get a bowl)?

Both. Chase is adequate but nothing more with the ball.

 

[Damon_3388]

Both. Chase is adequate but nothing more with the ball.

Yeah, sounds fair. Pretty decent bowling line-up if you can have Chase as the occasional 6th bowler.

It's odd that with the prevalence of spin bowling in the West Indies over the past decade, and the number of bowlers with good records outside of international cricket, that they can't really seem to convert that to being a good Test spinner. Even guys like Bishoo or Warrican don't really instill confidence as anything more than guys who'll average around 35 with the ball, while contributing little with the bat to balance out their relatively average bowling.