Development of The Test Captaincy of West Indies - 1930s

1930s

February 1930

The West Indies Board named different captains for the four Tests against touring M.C.C. from the colony where each match was played, including 42-year-old Nelson Betancourt who was the choice in Trinidad for his sole Test appearance.

April 1930

R.H.Mallett, about to return to England after managing the 1929–30 MCC touring party, met the West Indies Board and recommended G C 'Jack' Grant as captain for the Australian tour, even though Grant had no experience of captaincy and had never played in West Indies before. In his biography Grant confessed "I was younger than all of the sixteen players, save three; and most of these sixteen had already played for the West Indies, while I had not. Yet I was the captain. It could not be disputed that my white colour was a major factor in my being given this post."

"A policy at the time was to choose a nucleus of six players for the Test team and then complete the eleven with others from the 'home' territory," wrote Michael Manley. This is a bit of an exaggeration – a nucleus of seven or eight perhaps, because team selection was now in the hands of the West Indies Cricket Board rather than the colony where the Test match was played.

1933 to 1934–35

Jack Grant was heavily engaged in education in Grenada but was retained as West Indian captain for the 1933 tour of England and for the visit by MCC in 1934–35.

When injury forced Grant to leave the field in the Kingston Test, he asked Learie Constantine to take over.

1938–39

The Board appointed one selector to represent each region: For the 1939 tour party none had strong cricketing credentials.

"In selecting captains .. the authorities were not consciously against Headley and Constantine…… the selectors acted to preserve opportunity for their own class… confident that the best interests of the sport were being protected." (Michael Manley)

February 1939

When Jackie Grant gave up cricket to become a missionary (like his grandfather), his brother Rolph Grant became captain for the 1939 tour rather than George Headley "The appointment of Rolph Grant was historically necessary, for British colonialism based itself on the idea that the colonised were inferior people who were incapable of self-rule. The whites in the colonies subscribed to this fallacy, so they could not appoint a black skipper : to do so would have been tantamount to rejecting the cardinal logic of colonialism."