By Neto Baptiste
Antiguan and West Indies fast bowler, Alzarri Joseph, is enjoying his newest role in cricket and has labelled his experience as captain of the Leeward Islands Hurricanes in the recently ended Cricket West Indies Super 50 as a “good” one.
“It was good and I had the support of all the players and the coaching staff, so they made it a bit easier for me. Any which way I can share my experience with the team and try to lead them in the best way I can, then I am happy to do so. It is just how well you could get the guys to believe in what you’re trying to do and how well you could lead them on the park,” he said.
Joseph finished eighth in the bowling rankings with 13 wickets in eight matches to help lead Hurricanes to the Super 50 final against Trinidad and Tobago Red Force. Hurricanes were beaten by seven wickets at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad on November 11.
Joseph said it would have been a tough battle given the paltry total his team posted after winning the toss and opting to bat.
“If you score 135 in a 50 overs game it is always going to be difficult to win, but I just think we didn’t really assess well enough, so we didn’t get the score we needed. I think that if we had 200 or 220 that we could have probably won that game, but I think we had a really good tournament. We can’t go back and change what happened, but I think we had a really good tournament to get to the final,” he said.
Asked if his hope is to take on a much bigger role in the future in the senior West Indies squad, the Antiguan said a number of factors would influence his decision and key amongst them would be his ability to lead from the front.
“Maybe; it all depends on how I feel within myself and if I am ready for it because I am not going to put myself under that pressure if I am not going to lead by example. I want to be able to lead on the field by doing what I do well, as well as asking guys to follow my lead. I don’t want to be able to not perform well while asking guys to do their job,” the fast bowler said.
Joseph is currently in camp with the senior West Indies team as they prepare to host a touring England squad in December.
The Sir Vivian Richards Stadium will host the first two One-Day Internationals with matches scheduled for December 3 and 6 at the North Sound venue.