By Neto Baptiste
One of the hardest parts about being a captain and leader of any team, is having to break the news to players they have been dropped for an upcoming match.
This, according to one of the most successful captains in the history of the West Indies cricket team, Sir Viv Richards, was the hardest and most sensitive part of being a leader.
“You would go and give them a little pat on the shoulder which is the encouragement factor because everyone, when you’re omitted, there is that element of disappointment. So you have to do your stuff in terms of the comfort factor and prepare guys maybe for next time. Also, you’d have a look and see how guys cope with that as to whether you think you could bring them in or not because if they are sulking for five days then certainly, he needs some brushing up,” he said.
During an appearance on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show, Sir Viv was responding to questions regarding the ability of current captain, Jason Holder, to make tough decisions when required.
The iconic batsman said that when he played, those decisions, including team strategy, were made as a body.
“We didn’t have all the necessary computer stuff and analytic stuff that you have today but we would look at little clips from whatever videos we would see and then we would run through from one to 11 [opposing team] and how we were going to go at them and stuff like that,” he said.
The Antiguan scored an amazing 8,540 runs in 121 Tests while smashing 6,721 runs in 187 One Day International (ODI) matches.