As West Indies cricket struggles to improve, news has come that the Test and Twenty20 (T20) teams will have new captains. Test Captain Kraigg Brathwaite has given up his post, while Shai Hope replaces Rovman Powell and adds the T20 captaincy to his 50-over responsibilities. No announcement has yet been made as to who will lead the Test side.

There has been speculation for some time that Brathwaite’s time as captain was ending. He has led the side to some significant wins, but his overall record — winning 10 and losing 22 from his 39-match stint — was not great, and the overall decline continued under his watch.

It was a little different for Powell. On their day the West Indies could conquer any side in the game’s briefest format, and the team moved from nine to three in the rankings with him at the helm. But he won only one of eight home games against Bangladesh and England, and the feeling is that those results prompted his dismissal. Or perhaps Coach Daren Sammy simply felt Hope offered more and chose the Barbadian instead, a decision that has attracted some disapproval, especially from former Captain Dwayne Bravo, who called it “one of the worst decisions ever”.

Still, the blame for unsatisfactory performances should not have been theirs to shoulder. This is an undisputed truth that I’ve offered here before: You can’t have a good captain of a bad team. All the great cricket team captains in history — Frank Worrell, Richie Benaud, Clive Lloyd, Mike Brearly, Ian Chappell, and Mark Taylor, among others — all had one thing in common – they led good teams. A captain can set the most cunning fields imaginable, make the cleverest of bowling changes, or be as inspiring and as respected as ever, he still needs a team of capable players to execute whatever plans he sets out.

Many of us in the West Indies do not accept that we are lacking players of real ability because we recall the days, not that long ago either, when we produced players like cars off an assembly line. Consider that the following fast bowlers all played first-class cricket during the 1980s: Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall, Sylvester Clarke, Courtney Walsh, Patrick Patterson, Ian Bishop, and Curtly Ambrose. These are players who, at their best, would challenge for a place in any team of any era. The batters were no slouches either. Here are some names: Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Richie Richardson, Clive Lloyd, Lawrence Rowe, Alvin Kallicharran, Roy Fredericks, and Larry Gomes.

It really matters not one jot who the captain is if the team is poor. The West Indies’ extended abysmal run in Tests has little to do with who is leading the team and almost everything to do with the quality of the players. As it was on every other previous occasion, there will be great expectations and renewed hope when the new captain takes over. But just as it was with Richie Richardson, Brian Lara, Jimmy Adams, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Daren Ganga and Jason Holder, those high expectations will soon come crashing down. It has happened with every change of captaincy over the past two decades or so, and it will happen this time again.

As always, it will not be the captain’s fault. He can’t turn water into wine as Jesus did or spin straw into gold like Rumpelstiltskin did in the fairytale. He can only work with the material with which he is provided.

When Lloyd was captain and the team was near unbeatable, I used to argue that the side was so good that almost anyone could have led it. I have since amended that view a bit, and I acknowledge that the tall Guyanese was an outstanding leader of men, but I still feel that most captains would have been successful with such a great team at their command. On the other hand, I would wager that if Lloyd was given the current Test side, the results would be just as dismal.

Given the job of England Test captain in 1980, Ian Botham had a tough time at the helm. The great all-rounder lasted 12 games, losing four and drawing eight. Additionally, his form slumped and there were murmurs in the dressing room about his leadership style. He gave up the captaincy in 1981 after drawing the second Test of the Ashes series at Lords, having lost the first at Trent Bridge. Appointed in his stead was Mike Brearly, a man whose leadership skills have assumed an almost mythical standing.

The ensuing turnaround was stunning and is recorded in cricket folklore as “The Miracle of Headingly”. Replying to Australia’s first innings 401, England’s innings ended with them 227 adrift. Following on, Botham shook off his poor batting form to script an unbelievable recovery that an inspired Bob Willis converted to a miraculous 18-run win. The hosts then had victories in the next two Tests to take the series 3-1.

So was Botham a bad captain and Brearly a good one?

Perhaps. But let’s remember that Botham captained his country against the then mighty West Indies in nine of his 12 Tests. And it was probably an admirable achievement that England managed to draw six of those games.

Ponder also that Brearly, captain in 31 Tests from 1977 to 1981, winning 18, losing only four, never captained against the West Indies and was fortunate to lead his country, in a number of instances, against teams weakened by defections to Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket. Moreover, Botham was in close to unstoppable form under Brearly, and Willis was also at the peak of his substantial powers. Brearly might have had a “degree in people” as Australian fast bowler Rodney Hogg memorably remarked, but the stars were aligned in his favour as well.

Generally, the good captain is the winning captain. The inadequate captain is likely to have racked up more than his fair number of losses.

All this is to say that we are possibly overestimating the effect a captain has on the performance of his team. Capable leadership is always a good idea and an incompetent captain can be a heavy burden to his side. But a team’s fortunes is much more reliant on the quality of its members than on the expertise of its leader. The oft-used saying is true: A captain is only as good as his team.

West Indies cricket teams are not necessarily in need of better captains, what they require are more capable players to improve.

Garfield Robinson is a Jamaican living in the US who writes on cricket for a few Indian and English publications. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or garfield.v.robinson@gmail.com.

Garfield Robinson