Windies' prodigal son Hooper returns

By Tony Cozier

BRIDGETOWN (BARBADOS), MARCH 3. Less than a month back from its terrible pasting in Australia, the West Indies front up to another formidable challenge, against South Africa, starting in Guyana on Friday, in a familiar state of disarray.

As South Africa arrived in Georgetown last Thursday night, captain Shaun Pollock admitted he was surprised his opponent still hadn't decided who its captain would be.

A day later, after a week of divisive speculation, Pollock - and the passionate cricket public - finally knew who would be tossing up with him over the next couple of months.

Two years after he abruptly retired from international cricket during the home series against Australia, pleading his heart was not in it anymore, and three days following the selectors' recommendation to the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), Carl Hooper was confirmed as the new captain.

He replaces Jimmy Adams, the 33-year-old Jamaican left-hander, and is the fourth captain since Richie Richardson jumped before he would be pushed and packed it in during the 1996 World Cup.

Richardson was succeeded by the venerable Courtney Walsh who was dismissed in favour of Brian Lara in 1998. Lara opted out last February after what he called two years of moderate success and devastating failure, handing over to Adams.

Adams has paid the price as much for his own declining batting form as for the West Indies heavy defeats in its last two Test series, 1-3 in England last summer and 0-5 in Australia more recently. He has not been included in the training squad of 16 for the first Test and, aged 33, his career of 54 Tests could be at an end.

As captains have changed so have other personnel.

There have been three managers and three coaches since 1996 but the chopping and changing have made no difference to the West Indies' dismal overseas record of 18 defeats in its last 20 Tests.

The account is different at home where it has lost only one series in the past 27 years - to Mark Taylor's Australians in 1995.

So Hooper starts with a plus, especially as his first Test is in his hometown, Georgetown. He needs whatever help he can against opponents as tough as they come who also carry the psychological advantage of a 5-0 whitewash in the previous series between the teams in South Africa two years ago.

There is also the pressure of expectations on the new captain who has given a cricketing interpretation to the biblical story of the prodigal son. During an international career that started in 1987 and now includes 80 Tests and 182 one-day internationals, Hooper's batting average of 33.76 and bowling average of 47.01 expose underachievement in an obviously gifted cricketer.

He has never seemed comfortable with the responsibility of leadership or the methods of administrators. Even as a teenager, he gave up the Guyana under-19 captaincy to concentrate on his batting. He led Kent in one match during his time with the county and stepped down after he lost it to Worcestershire.

Previously appointed West Indies captain to the Hong Kong Sixes tournament in 1997, he refused to play after a row with the organisers.

He was fined on the 1995 tour of England for leaving the team without permission and defied the instructions of manager Wes Hall and coach Malcolm Marshall to play for Guyana against the touring Englishmen in 1998.

His retirement in 1999 came three weeks before the World Cup in England for which he had already been selected. He had also opted out of the previous World Cup at the last minute, citing the effects of malaria.

It was not surprising, therefore, that one of the four selectors voted against his elevation to the captaincy or that the WICB itself, comprising president Pat Rousseau, vice- president Clarvis Joseph and two directors from each of the six individual regional boards were deeply divided before sanctioning his appointment.

What tilted the issue in Hooper's favour was the transformation since his return from Australia where he has lived for the past two years with his second wife Connie, an Australian, and infant son. He is seemingly a different man.

He has broken the run-scoring record in the annual first-class tournament, with 889 runs in eight matches at an average of 97 in the Busta International Series, taking 24 wickets as well and leading Guyana to the Shield final against Jamaica in Kingston this weekend.

Even those sceptical of his past comment on his renewed enthusiasm and his influence on the young players.

Like all specially gifted sportsmen, Hooper triggers contrasting emotions. Half the Caribbean proclaims him a cricketing god, the other half seem him an ordinary mortal with feet of clay.

If the West Indies falters under him, he will find no sympathy in some of the other territories. As fate would have it, his opposing captain in the Shield final in Kingston was Adams who was moved to publicly plead with fans not to boo him.

It is an early introduction to the type of burden the captain of the West Indies cricket team has to bear. Meanwhile, Pollock and his men were in Georgetown preparing for the opening match of their tour with no such distraction.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Merchant makes it two in a row
Next     : Once upon a very long time ago