BRIDGETOWN – Prime Min­is­ter of Bar­ba­dos, Mia Mot­t­ley has laud­ed Ros­ton Chase for his pro­mo­tion to West In­dies Test cap­tain, de­scrib­ing it as an “ex­tra­or­di­nary mile­stone”.

The 33-year-old Chase was of­fi­cial­ly ap­point­ed to the post on Fri­day by Crick­et West In­dies (CWI), fol­low­ing a rig­or­ous in­ter­view process where he beat out five oth­er can­di­dates for the po­si­tion.

He takes over the reins from coun­try­man Kraigg Brath­waite, who re­signed as Test cap­tain ear­li­er this year.

Chase be­comes the 10th Bar­ba­di­an to cap­tain the West In­dies and his ap­point­ment means all of the se­nior West In­dies teams are led by a Bar­ba­di­an, with Hay­ley Matthews the Women’s cap­tain and Shai Hope the skip­per of the T20I and ODI teams.

In a re­lease is­sued short­ly af­ter the an­nounce­ment was made, Mot­t­ley, who is al­so chair of CARI­COM, said Bar­ba­dos had al­ways pro­duced great lead­ers.

“To­day, we wit­ness his­to­ry. Ros­ton Chase, a hum­ble son of the soil, is now the 10th Bar­ba­di­an to cap­tain the West In­dies team — an ex­tra­or­di­nary mile­stone not just for him, but for every Bar­ba­di­an who be­lieves in dis­ci­pline, dig­ni­ty and qui­et de­ter­mi­na­tion.

“From Ted­dy Hoad in 1929 dur­ing the in­au­gur­al home Test against Eng­land, to Frank Wor­rell, the first black man to cap­tain the West In­dies in a full se­ries. He was a trans­for­ma­tive fig­ure for our re­gion. To Gar­ry Sobers, one of our two liv­ing na­tion­al he­roes and the great­est crick­eter the world has ever seen. Clyde Wal­cott, one of the im­mor­tal Three Ws. Desmond Haynes, steady and re­li­able at the helm, who served as an ODI cap­tain,” Mot­t­ley said in the re­lease.

“We re­mem­ber too Floyd Reifer, called to lead dur­ing a time of great chal­lenge in 2009 when a play­ers’ strike left a void — and it was to Bar­ba­dos the re­gion turned, be­cause Bar­ba­dos has al­ways shown lead­er­ship, and de­pend­abil­i­ty.

“Then came the com­mand­ing pres­ence of Ja­son Hold­er, the dogged re­silience of Kraigg Brath­waite, and the fi­nesse of Shai Hope, who is cur­rent­ly the cap­tain of both white ball teams. And let us not for­get Hay­ley Matthews, the dy­nam­ic cap­tain of the West In­dies Women’s team, whose fear­less lead­er­ship and all-round bril­liance con­tin­ue to in­spire a new gen­er­a­tion women and girls across the Caribbean,” she fur­ther added.

Mot­t­ley said Chase’s el­e­va­tion to Test cap­tain was a tes­ta­ment to his hard work and ded­i­ca­tion since mak­ing his de­but nine years ago.

“Ros­ton Chase stands tall among these gi­ants. Not a flashy play­er, but one who qui­et­ly goes about his work. A man of ef­fort, of per­sis­tence, of be­lief. In many ways, he rep­re­sents the best of who we are — work­ing hard, stay­ing ground­ed, and trust­ing that re­ward comes not with noise, but with re­solve.

“And what a sto­ry Bar­ba­dos con­tin­ues to write: three West In­dies Test cap­tains, back-to- back-to-back. That is no co­in­ci­dence. That is char­ac­ter. That is com­mit­ment. That is the cul­ture of crick­et in this coun­try,” Mot­t­ley fur­ther stat­ed.

“To Wes­ley Hall and Comber­mere, schools that have helped nur­ture him, I say — thank you. To the coach­es, at every lev­el, who poured in­to him — thank you. To Ros­ton’s par­ents, Mar­garet and Rad­cliffe, who have stood by him through every run, every spell, and every chal­lenge — thank you for al­low­ing your son to blos­som. And to Ros­ton him­self — thank you, for be­ing in this mo­ment.”

CMC