Sarwan is not ready for Windies captaincy
By Leeron Brumell
Guyana Chronicle
June 12, 2004
“I DON’T think I’m fully ready for the captaincy because I need more experience, but it would be a dream come true for me to captain the West Indies team,” West Indies Vice captain Ramnaresh Sarwan declared, yesterday.
Sarwan was at the time locked in a question-answer segment with the media houses at NCN-TV’s studio.
The highest Guyanese Test scorer in a single innings (261 not out), said he received valuable support from his teammates when he captained them against Bangladesh in the One-day series they won 3-0.
“Everyone was very supportive, I don’ think it’s a matter of question. I haven’t done it in a long period, but I just think I need more experience rather than saying I don’t have enough.
The batsman pointed out he never really had the opportunity to bat as a captain and bat under pressure as a captain.
“On the couple of occasions that I’ve captained the team it was under pretty easy situations.”
Sarwan, who will be 24 years on June 24, said he would be in a much better position to lead the West Indies team if he captained Guyana in the regional competitions.
He said he was pleased with the advice and support from the players, ex-players and fans. “You try to please everyone. Everybody tends to come up and give you advice and I think that’s very good. It’s kind of hard to please everyone, sometimes they get upset and stuff like that when you don’t do what they want you to, but it’s understandable. The fact of the matter is, whenever you’re in charge you have to go with your instincts.”
But he does not listen to criticisms when on the field, thus he blocks everything out.
Sarwan said he was pleased with the results from the past six months training and was overjoyed with his recent successes in the Bangladesh test and one-day series.
“I’ve really worked on my fitness and I’ve come a long way with Gus Logie and Ronald Rogers.”
He reiterated he was not disappointed when the declaration was made in the final test against Bangladesh.
“They gave me eight overs to try and get to 300, but I told them the most important thing was winning. I think, most importantly, the team comes first. You don’t want to find yourself where you’re bowling a day and three-quarter. I think it was very important for us to win this match and obviously we’ve been under some pressure, so the declaration came at the right time.”
He recalled that Ravi Rampaul carried the message to him but he was not surprised.
Ronnie, as he is also known, said Bangladesh deserved credit for the fight they put up.
“I don’t think we underestimated them but they got us by surprise. I thought they improved and kept improving. I don’t think we (West Indies) played well during the one-day series. We were good in bowling and restricting them for decent totals but when we were batting it was kind of hard getting the ball off the square.
“You must give them credit. I don’t think you can put all the blame on us, I thought they bowled pretty well during the one-day series as well.”
Experience, seemed to be the downfall for the West Indies team, which has a number of youngsters, according to Sarwan.
“I think we don’t have the killer instinct. I don’t know if it’s because we are not accustomed to winning and we’re trying to find solutions. That’s something we’re still working on.”
He said that burnt out players was not the problem in the West Indies team as in the other Test playing nations, but the younger players needed experience, disclosing that for the past year, the West Indies was working with the youngsters for them to understand the importance of cricket to West Indians.
Asked if a foreign coach would be better to work with the team, the right-handed batsman replied: “Who ever coaches the team I’ll be comfortable with and I’m sure the other players will also be comfortable too.”
Sarwan who is a right arm leg-break bowler said he was looking forward to the England tour later this month, saying he has a number of goals, which he would not disclose.
He said the bowling department would have their work cut out for them.
“I think the reason we batted so badly against England was because we were under prepared.”
The vice-captain said in his position, he does not have much of a say in the selection of the teams for the matches and the only time he was involved was in the captain’s role in Brian Lara’s absence.