ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – The West In­dies will have a new Test cap­tain when it takes on Aus­tralia in the sum­mer fol­low­ing the shock res­ig­na­tion of Kraigg Brath­waite on Mon­day.

Ac­cord­ing to a press re­lease from Crick­et West In­dies (CWI), the 32-year-old Brath­waite, who served as Test cap­tain for the past four years, had in­di­cat­ed his in­ten­tion to step down ear­li­er this year ahead of the com­ple­tion of the West In­dies’ tour of Pak­istan.

His sur­prise res­ig­na­tion comes just one day be­fore West In­dies head coach Daren Sam­my as­sumes re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the Test team.

The West In­dies will face Aus­tralia in the Caribbean in a three-match Test se­ries be­gin­ning June 25.

“Un­der­stand­ing the im­por­tance of con­ti­nu­ity, Brath­waite want­ed to en­sure the team had a pe­ri­od of tran­si­tion be­fore his de­par­ture.

“As a re­sult, he has sub­mit­ted his res­ig­na­tion ahead of the home se­ries against Aus­tralia, giv­ing the new lead­er­ship time to es­tab­lish it­self,” the state­ment read.

“This se­ries will be par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial, al­low­ing Brath­waite, who is two match­es shy of 100 test match­es, to dou­ble down on his bat­ting with­out added re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.”

Brath­waite took over as Test cap­tain in 2021, suc­ceed­ing fel­low Bar­ba­di­an Ja­son Hold­er.

Un­der his lead­er­ship, the West In­dies se­cured their first Test vic­to­ry in Aus­tralia in 27 years with a thrilling eight-run win in Bris­bane in 2024.

Ear­li­er this year, he led the team to a land­mark Test vic­to­ry over Pak­istan in Pak­istan, their first in 34 years, to lev­el the se­ries.

Brath­waite’s cap­tain­cy al­so saw West In­dies de­feat Eng­land at home in 2022 and claim a 2-0 se­ries win over Bangladesh in chal­leng­ing con­di­tions dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic in 2021.

CWI laud­ed Brath­waite for his achieve­ments and com­mit­ment.

“CWI ex­tends its deep­est grat­i­tude to Kraigg Brath­waite for his years of ser­vice as cap­tain, rec­og­niz­ing his ded­i­ca­tion to West In­dies crick­et and his lead­er­ship in guid­ing the Test team to sig­nif­i­cant mile­stones. A new cap­tain will be named in the com­ing weeks,” it said in the state­ment.

In an­oth­er sig­nif­i­cant move, ODI cap­tain Shai Hope has re­placed Rov­man Pow­ell as the West In­dies’ T20 cap­tain.

Pow­ell, who had been at the helm since 2023, se­cured home se­ries vic­to­ries against In­dia, Eng­land, and South Africa.

He al­so guid­ed the team to the Su­per 8 stage at the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 and played a key role in the team’s rise from 9th to 5th in the ICC T20I rank­ings.

CWI al­so took the op­por­tu­ni­ty to thank Pow­ell for his lead­er­ship and for el­e­vat­ing the team to new heights.

“His ef­forts have set a strong foun­da­tion for the fu­ture, and his con­tri­bu­tions to West In­dies crick­et re­main in­valu­able. This will in­clude op­ti­miz­ing the chances of Pow­ell con­tribut­ing in a more de­fined way to the team as one of the lead­ing bats­men in T20 crick­et.,” the state­ment added.

Sam­my said Shai had been el­e­vat­ed to the po­si­tion giv­en his per­for­mances over the past year and a half.

“Shai Hope’s ap­point­ment sig­nals a pro­gres­sive shift for West In­dies crick­et, giv­en his suc­cess with the 50-over team in the last 18 months.

“As the team con­tin­ues its evo­lu­tion, Hope blends in­stinc­tive de­ci­sion-mak­ing with an­a­lyt­i­cal pre­ci­sion, us­ing in-depth match da­ta and play­er per­for­mance in­sights to shape strat­e­gy,” Sam­my said.

“Shai is a strong be­liev­er in team per­for­mances and his metic­u­lous prepa­ra­tion, cou­pled with his calm and com­posed de­meanour un­der pres­sure, makes him an ide­al leader at this stage.”

CWI’s Di­rec­tor of Crick­et, Miles Bas­combe thanked both Brath­waite and Pow­ell for their in­valu­able con­tri­bu­tions to West In­dies crick­et.

“Kraigg Brath­waite has been an out­stand­ing leader for our Test team, guid­ing the squad with dis­ci­pline, re­silience, and a deep un­der­stand­ing of the game. His con­tri­bu­tions have been in­valu­able, and un­der his lead­er­ship, we have wit­nessed his­toric mo­ments that will be re­mem­bered for years to come.

“We thank Kraigg for his ser­vice as cap­tain and look for­ward to his con­tin­ued im­pact as a se­nior play­er,” Bas­combe said.

“In terms of our white-ball lead­er­ship, af­ter re­ceiv­ing the ad­vice of head coach Daren Sam­my on the in­ten­tion to tran­si­tion to Shai Hope, we spoke to Rov­man Pow­ell, who re­ceived the de­ci­sion with pro­fes­sion­al­ism and grace.

“I have ex­pressed to him that he ought to feel dig­ni­fied by his con­tri­bu­tions to West In­dies crick­et, as he has played a cru­cial role in el­e­vat­ing our T20 team to new heights. His lead­er­ship has left a strong foun­da­tion, and we are grate­ful for his ef­forts,” he fur­ther added.

CMC