moreTHE West Indies captaincy has proved a traumatic experience for several of the many who have held it in the decades of decline.
Its effects triggered Richie Richardson's acute fatigue syndrome that required a period out of the game.
Brian Lara initially gave it up after two years of "modest success and devastating failure" to get his mind, and his game, back on track.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul quit after a year and a bit as it was undermining his batting.
Even the vice-captaincy has been a problem. Ramnaresh Sarwan suddenly resigned, without explanation, as Chris Gayle's deputy prior to the tour of New Zealand two years ago.
Only three Tests into the position, the latest incumbent, Darren Sammy, is having to deal with the pressures that come with leading a struggling team against a backdrop of impractical expectations and carping comment about his ability as a player.
Head coach Ottis Gibson, the 41-year-old Barbadian just ten months into his job himself, sees it as one of his responsibilities to help him overcome them.
"It's been tough for him," Gibson admitted following the abortion of the rain-ruined tour of Sri Lanka last week, Sammy's first at the helm.
"I've said to him that one of the key things in any partnership-leadership situation is the relationship between captain and coach," he said. "So far, we've had a fantastic relationship."
"We talk a lot about the game, we talk a lot about leadership," he added. "I've never captained an international team but I've had years working with lots of different captains and I think I understand what he has to do to make the position work for him."
The reality is that it was always going to be tough for Sammy.
His elevation from occasional selection in the Test team (eight matches since his sensational seven for 66 debut against England three and a half years ago) to captain was effectively by a process of elimination.
"We all know the circumstances that led us to this point," Gibson said, referring to the decisions by previous captain Chris Gayle and vice-captain Dwayne Bravo to turn down West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) offers of contracts that just about eliminated them from consideration.
With Chanderpaul's batting immediately thriving when he returned to the ranks, there was no way he could be persuaded back. Sarwan, in the WICB's bad books to the extent that he wasn't even offered a contract, wasn't in the frame.
So Sammy came out top of a very short list of candidates.
really? How so and who were the other candidates? Sarwan and Ramdin who they purposely sidelined to give homeboy Sammy di work?
Why wasn't Nash given the job since he was already on the team rather than making room for Sammy? Who are the geniuses that crooked up this scheme leaving them panties exposed?
