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West Indies Test captain Jason Holder.

Holder: WI can make it to the top again

The current West Indies Test captain Jason Holder believes that the regional side has what it takes to become number-one contenders again.

Speaking during an Instagram conversation with the Barbados Cricket Association on Monday evening, the former West Indies One Day International skipper took fans and supporters along with him as he bore all in a rather informal session as he took questions from the public on the social media platform.

Being asked personal and professional questions by persons from across the globe, Holder took great pride in saying that he hopes to see the West Indies regain the top spot in the Test and One-Day formats before he hangs up his gloves and retires, as the region has everything needed to get them there.

“Honestly, I would love to see West Indies become the number one Test team in the world, the number one One-day side in the world. We have been the number one T20 side in the world in my career so far, but I would love to see us particularly win a Test championship or win a World Cup or just become the number side in the world in those two formats.”

He did say, however, that it would be no easy feat as the region is far behind the rest of the world.

“We are far behind for a number of reasons. I just don’t think financially we are there where we can ascertain all that is needed to develop and harness young talent.

“Finances go a long way and I think we are fortunate in Barbados to have the facilities that we have and the resources that we have in terms of so many legends who have played the game, and so many developmental programmes in place. I wouldn’t sit here and say that they are 100% great. I still think that we can all agree that a lot of them have room for improvement. I think we have got the infrastructure there and we need to keep adding to it and make sure that we keep putting the right things in place to develop the programmes,” he said, noting that we need to keep evolving what we are doing.

Counting his first Test match hundred against England in Antigua as his favourite innings ever played, and his One Day International debut for West Indies in Perth as his most memorable moment, the six foot, seven giant stated that the best advice that he ever got came from West Indies Bowling Coach Roddy Estwick, and that was to not get caught up with the media when he is playing.

“So while playing, very rarely you would see me reading the newspapers to see what people have written or would you see me watching the news and looking over highlights per se to hear these things, because for me, it’s all noise and peripheral damage that could be a detriment to what I am actually doing. It could hamper me in terms of me losing focus as to what is my actual goal. At the end of the day we play cricket for fans, but I can’t please every single fan and I’ve learnt that even though I may do really well on a particular day or have a great game, there is always somebody out there who is not going to be 100% happy with what you have done. So for me, it’s just to shut them out and push on with what I need to do. I just remain focused on my goals.”

Naming Curtley Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and Brian Lara as his idols that he would have been fortunate enough to see play, Holder stated that he has more love for the longer version of the game due to the suspense and physical and mental demand. He went on to say that he he thinks more can be done to raise interest in the format.

“Day and night Test match cricket is difficult and difficult from the perspective where the sighting of the ball is a challenge. I put it down mainly to the fact that we don’t play enough day and night cricket. I think if we play more and more of it, we would get accustomed to the pink ball, but it is still hard. Things like day and night cricket, names and numbers in the back of the jerseys. I think things like these can make it a little more interesting.”

Naming Rory McIlroy and LeBron James as his favourite sportsmen, Holder passed on some pearls of wisdom to aspiring cricketers.

“As a young, upcoming cricketer, the first thing you should really look to do is enjoy what you are doing. And in enjoying what you are doing, I think the game becomes a lot easier. I would always go back to my time in the West Indies High Performance Centre… that was the best thing to happen to my cricket career.

“It wasn’t necessarily that you went in and you change so many things when it comes to the technical aspects of your game, but it just made me aware of what a professional cricketer entailed. It made me aware of where my game was at and where it needed to be to become an international cricketer or professional cricketer,” he said.

Drawing a comparison to Barbados’ Centre of Excellence as an avenue to open the door to international cricket, Holder urged all young players to hold the opportunity with both hands.

“I would only advise any young cricketer who would have the opportunity to go into the Centre of Excellence to grasp what you can, enjoy it while it lasts. But know the reason why you’re there, understand where you want to be and before you leave the Centre of Excellence, know where your game needs to be going in order to get to the top,” he added.

(MP)

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