Squad stability poses a challenge to Pothas
Nic Pothas
The reigning ICC World T20 champions West Indies saw a change in the head coach role, as assistant coach Nic Pothas was given that responsibility following Stuart Law’s resignation from the post.
Unsurprisingly, Pothas also identified the absence of a stable team as a problem from his current position.
He said: “The most challenging part is players coming and going. You don’t have the same team for different tours. Some people are available and then they are not available, which is difficult.
“But in the same way, it provides opportunities for young guys to come in and express their ways in world cricket.
“It’s not easy if you’re trying to put a brand together or trying to put a way of playing together, when you don’t have the same players.
“If you look at Bangladesh, they have a very similar team. Especially, from a batting point of view, it’s very well set. So, it’s not that difficult to coach them, when you’ve got seniority and consistency… It’s a lot easier to coach.”
The two-time World T20 champions suffered the most for the 20-over format itself, as the franchise leagues always aspire to have the T20 specialists from that region. And the team often fail to attract their players for international duties, since the T20 leagues have greater financial security on offer.
More often than not, the likes of Chris Gayle and Kieran Pollard prefer heading down the T20 freelance road. Evin Lewis even turned down the central contracts in October this year, very few of the T20 stars are interested in international commitments.
Pothas, however, was not ready to make any comments on franchise leagues’ influence on West Indies, he did admit that it is difficult to play without the ones who somehow are irregular because of such competitions.
“I am not in the best place to comment on that but all I would say is that it’s very hard to play international cricket without your best players on the field. Having said that, I completely understand why it’s happening,” he said.
