‘Make Hetmyer captain’- Former CWI president wants Guyanese in leadership role

Cricket West Indies (CWI) should appoint Guyanese batsman Shimron Hetmyer as the new white-ball captain after the disappointing run of Kieron Pollard at the ICC T20 World Cup and, generally, for the ‘Men in Maroon.’

This assertion has come from former CWI President Dave Cameron, who believes that the current CWI leadership is not looking at the precedent of players’ leadership records when selecting captains.

“We felt as an organisation that Hetmyer would be a future leader for West Indies. The way he conducted himself when we won the 2016 Under-19 World Cup and coming through the ranks,” Cameron said while speaking as a guest on Line and Length on SPORTSMAX.

“Hetmyer is a very confident young man, very aggressive and talented, we felt he could be someone who could lead us and be a future captain of the West Indies.”

Cameron spoke as part of a review of the leadership roles in the team and CWI managerial structure after the side won one in five matches and finished near the bottom of the table with captain Pollard once again contributing very little with the bat.

After 23 matches in four T20 World Cups, Pollard has scored 254 runs at a poor average of 14.11. Since he was appointed West Indies T20I captain in September 2019, Pollard has played 31 matches, winning 10, losing 16 with five no-results.

During the T20 World Cup, Hetmyer topped the batting with 127 runs, averaging 31.75. Only two others managed over 100 runs – Evin Lewis (105, avg 21.00) and vice-captain Nicholas Pooran (103, avg 20.60) – as the defending champions bowed out.

“I am disappointed but not surprised, we tried a different method a few years ago and we started to have results. This administration has decided that they wanted to go back to what has been tried and failed…so the results were always there,” Cameron said.

“We won two games at the 2019 World Cup and now we won one at this event. Everybody has a different strategy and different leadership styles. You require different types of leadership and management depending on where you are in your cycle.

“In 2013 when we took over, West Indies Cricket was at a serious crossroad with our players and finances and we had to make some different decisions then.

“In my mind Cricket West Indies needs professional leadership. It’s not just West Indies cricket, I think cricket as a game is not growing as it should because we focus on the game itself rather than opportunities within the sport to expand it so that so many more people can participate. That is where I was, and I think this is where we need to be heading. So, in my mind, however you want to structure CWI, you need to take it out of this parochial structure and give it the opportunity to really perform as a company.” (Sportsmax)