THE WRITING IS FIRMLY ON THE WALL NOW!!

[mapoui]

on current form and past performance westindies does not lose much if anything if ganga is selected as abatsman.

only Braithwaithe and Simmons, other than Gayle would I consider before Ganga as opener.

and I would consider none down the order as superior other than Shive and Sarwan..not even sknash.

in addition to his proven leadership skills the slection of Ganga as lower order batsman is no loss and cud easily be gain for the westindies.

there are only an oddity or 2 in gangas personality to consider...like the ego that led him to send in jamaica at the Oval in the recent semi-final, precipitating a Titty loss. and similar stuff that led to parody during his tenure as Titty captain.

I am sure that the level of westindian captaincy and experience would put all that into perspective for Ganaga and result in postive change. so those oddities would not bother me at all in considering him as captain

[Googley]

the only natural leaders who can hold a place in the team (if the WICB remove their hate blinders) are Sars and Ramdin.

[AFRO]

Hi AFRO. Given that I would like to stay on topic - and I am not too sure whether the forum monitors regard posts that wander off topic - I am unsure whether answering your ? about Bishoo or Bravo would break the house rules. I chose Ganga primarily for his proven leadership skills as a team captain; he is also a better batsman. Thus the only thing the current team 'balance' would be missing is Sammy's bowling and i would hope that Dwayne Bravo can start to pull his weight in that department once more - Darren Bravo and Bishoo could still play in this scenario.

You raise an interesting point though that the wicb is also hopefully thinking about i.e. is team balance best served at this time by selecting the best people for every 'skill position' or should they persist in making some short term concessions on the basis of most pressing role required within the team. You get me? Do we need a captain more than we need the five best batsmen, the best keeper, an all rounder and four bowlers?

In recent history the team has not flourished while the premier batsman is also the captain because the gulf in class (and sometimes actual performance) between lara/gayle/chanderpaul/sarwan and the rest of the batters is so huge that once opposition captains get that batsman out the rest of the batting just folds. Could Ganga play as captain and bat down the order?

All in all I still tend to go with replacing the current skipper with someone proven in that role at regional level and taking it from there to 'balance the team'.

Don't worry about going off topic man!!.. we all chilled around here!! , let me go into more detail about Ganga, the thing is he probably isn't one our best five batters is he? i mean the way i look at it is..

Barath
Brathwaite/Simmons
Darren
Sarwan/Samuels
Nash
All-rounder (Bravo, Carlos Brathwaite or Bonner)
Baugh (wk)
Taylor
Roach
Edwards
Bishoo

So who exactly would Ganga replace in that line-up? pesonally i'd much rather have the best players on the pitch than worry too much about whos' leading them, because nine times out of ten it's ABILITY that wins you a game, not so much inspiration, perhaps the best solution is to have different captains in different formats? otherwise we MUST give the captaincly to someone who is good enough to play all forms and hold down his place, right now that would be Darren, Bishoo and to a lesser extent Roach.

[mr. cricket]

brathwaite is being groomed as captain already

[mikesiva]

Afro, drop the allrounder spot from your team, and put Shiv there....

[Googley]

Afro, drop the allrounder spot from your team, and put Shiv there....

you want to kill Afro???

[AFRO]

Afro, drop the allrounder spot from your team, and put Shiv there....

After Shivs rant the other day i'm afraid HE'S DONE Mike!!.. i know it will be hard to take but that's life my friend!! .

[hdresden]

I notice a trend here where people think Roach is a better bowler than Rampaul, well I think time will prove he isnt. Everytime Ramapaul gets a chance he takes wickets, yet Gibo not playing him choosing the same failing paceman. Same with Bishoo, only when change was forced upon them by great a showing at WC. did they move from Miller and Benn.

[mapoui]

I notice a trend here where people think Roach is a better bowler than Rampaul, well I think time will prove he isnt. Everytime Ramapaul gets a chance he takes wickets, yet Gibo not playing him choosing the same failing paceman. Same with Bishoo, only when change was forced upon them by great a showing at WC. did they move from Miller and Benn.

I doh quite go along with this here!

Rampaul is prolly a better bowler now. but Roach has the potential to be great. Roach has had a couple of bad matches but he is good lets see how he does in the tests.

I have seen Rampaul bowl and bowl in tests...just last time in Oz eg.. and could not buy a wicket.

but rampaul does move the ball a lot and when conditions are helpful he will be a handful for any opposition

[mr. cricket]

roach rampaul and taylor should all play in the same line up scammy needs to bog off