THE matter of captaincy in team sport is often contentious, perhaps due to the number of factors to be considered — including the subjectivity of the selection panel — in what should nevertheless be an objective and calculated process.

Not surprisingly, Tamar Lambert’s election as team leader to the upcoming Caribbean Twenty20 team has caused raised eyebrows and elicited debate primarily because his appointment has come in spite of the availability of West Indies skipper Chris Gayle and the simultaneous inclusion of the latter in the team.

The big left-hander has regularly assumed the reins late in the season — usually after the latter has already given Jamaica a flying start to the four-day regional competition — but on this occasion, the local administrators have wisely decided to stick with the burly Lambert for the short tournament to be held in Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.

Lambert has been a proven leader from his schoolboy days at Jonathan Grant in the Sunlight Cup competition.

According to local cricket boss Paul Campbell, the issue of ‘continuity’ is at the core of this decision, but his utterances could well be an administrator at his diplomatic best as pundits have incessantly questioned the wisdom of demoting a captain who rubs shoulders with the majority of the players during the domestic season and who has earned their respect and co-operation while producing positive results.

On the contrary, Gayle, though a creditable leader with his inimitable, laid-back demeanour, would not be privy to this level of bonding with, or knowledge about, the Jamaican players due to his commitment with the West Indies team.

Further, the hard-hitting batsman would only have been sensitised to the intricacies of the Jamaican players — what makes them tick and the level of improvement each has made — on a second-hand basis.

Contrary to what many may believe, being captain of a Test side does not give one an automatic right to lead at a lower level and, in fact, could be counter-productive, bearing in mind the pressures of competing at the international level, the need to rest and the wisdom of deriving fresh leadership ideas even while still competing.

And Gayle, being the great team man and reflective individual that he is, would do well to use this opportunity, without the pressure of captaincy, to get his batting back on track following a mediocre series against South Africa where his failure at the top of the order was the undeniable cause of the team’s battering in all forms of the game.

Meanwhile Lambert, who has led Jamaica at the Under-15 and Under-19 levels as well, has garnered respect and admiration throughout the region and the pervasive belief is that, along with Daren Ganga of T&T, he possesses the best cricketing brain among the current players.

The St Catherine skipper has often proved that great leaders are born — not made — with his innate decision-making skills coming to the fore at crucial moments in a match. That he has led Jamaica on its golden run of three successive regional titles therefore comes as little surprise.

This scenario brings to mind a certain individual named Marlon Tucker who in the late 1980s led Jamaica to a number of four-day titles following a drought of some 20 years during which the only success came in 1969 with Easton McMorris at the helm.

Back then Jamaica, as it always has, was blessed with an abundance of talent and during that unfruitful stretch dominated by Barbados, would have at various times paraded players in the ilk of Jeffrey Dujon, Richard Austin, Everton Mattis, Herbert Chang, Michael Holding, Cleveland Davidson, Delroy Morgan, Courtney Walsh, Patrick Patterson, Jimmy Adams, Courtney Daley, Robert Haynes and many others.

Tucker, who like Lambert was an outstanding youth leader, was also a Jamaica Under-19 skipper but as an average off-spinner and middle-order batsman, was not an automatic choice for the senior team, made even more pronounced by his dubious ability in the field.

And yet, his shrewd leadership triggered a much-publicised resurgence in the then Red Stripe Cup tournament and handed Jamaica a rare succession of titles in 1988 and 1989, even in the presence of a plethora of accomplished Test players, thus opening the proverbial floodgates for more regional successes in the ensuing years.

One recalls that Tucker was so revered as a leader that had he the talent to make the West Indies team he could well have been a serious candidate for captaincy.

The similarities continue as Lambert himself has in the past struggled to make Jamaica’s senior team amid a slew of talented young cricketers who have emerged over the past decade or so. He has, however, done quite well at the club level and in managing to maintain his place in the national side, is undoubtedly quite an asset.

It is expected that with much at stake in this inaugural regional tournament — like the upcoming Champions League event scheduled for South Africa in September — the Jamaica team will rally around its leader and produce the goods. Based on the quality of players at their disposal, it is indeed not inconceivable or Lambert’s men to cop the spoils as player or player, they are still regarded as the most talented team in the region.