By Neto Baptiste
Stand-in West Indies captain for the pending Bangladesh tour set to start on 10th January, Kraigg Brathwaite, has the backing of legendary West Indies captain Sir Viv Richards, who believes the Barbadian opening bat has what it takes to do well in the position.
“I like Kraigg, I think he is a very dedicated cricketer and in my opinion, one of the guys who are more serious about his game because and you could see he thinks and eats cricket. So I think it’s an opportunity for the young man and for him to go to Bangladesh and he may also have something to prove and being given the responsibility I think he could be successful,” he said.
Brathwaite’s unexpected return to leadership comes after 12 players, including captain Jason Holder and vice-captain Roston Chase declined to take part in the tour, due to concerns over the coronavirus.
Bangladesh is noted as one of the world’s Covid-19 hot spots with 500,000 confirmed cases of the virus and over 7,000 deaths.
Sir Viv believes that Brathwaite, having previously been replaced as vice-captain by Chase, ahead of the New Zealand tour, has the experience needed.
“I don’t think both are going anyway, so I think it is quite logical at this particular point that seeing he would have had the experience in that particular position for him to do so [continue],” he said.
Former Trinidad & Tobago and West Indies A team captain, Jason Mohammed, will lead the ODI team with Sunil Ambris as vice-captain.