Development of The Test Captaincy of West Indies - 1950s

1950s

April 1951

Goddard was retained as captain for tour of Australia. However, his criticisms of the Board for agreeing to the match itinerary for the Australian tour led to him being excluded from West Indian team for three years. During the series against Australia, West Indies lost 4–1, as the senior players declined to offer him any on the field advice after they felt he had taken all the credit for the victory in England in 1950. "He succumbed to his own tactical deficiencies" (Michael Manley).

1952–53

Jeffrey Stollmeyer became captain starting with a Test series against the visiting 1953 Indians. His cricket knowledge unquestionably made him worthy of the position of captain.

1954–55

Denis Atkinson, Stollmeyer's deputy, led West Indies in three of the five Tests against Australia. "About 2,000 people protested, at the Kingston Race Course, against the appointment of Atkinson, the Barbados all-rounder, as captain of the West Indies for the fourth and fifth Tests against the Australians. They wanted Frank Worrell, who was named vice-captain."

1955–56

Atkinson nevertheless was kept on as captain of a West Indies team to New Zealand in 1955–56 with John Goddard manager (these appointments made nearly two years before the tour so they were not connected with Atkinson being rewarded for scoring a double century against Australia).

WI Board representatives such as Noel Pierce (Barbados) continued to man the selection panel but non-whites like the British Guiana secretary Ken Wishart who had opposed Atkinson's captaincy, and Berkeley Gaskin, and players a cut above like Gerry Gomez began to be appointed, as in 1957.

October 1956

For the 1957 England tour "John Goddard was restored from retirement as captain (passing over more suitable candidates in Jeffrey Stollmeyer and even Denis Atkinson), and Clyde Walcott replaced Worrell as vice-captain – it was still several years before a black man could be accepted as full captain. He (Walcott) would not have been the "easier option" which the administrators had imagined." Goddard was a failure as captain. "That his selection in 1957 was a travesty was not his fault" (Manley).

1958

Gerry Alexander was appointed captain for home series against Pakistan 1957–58 and for the next two years. An "Alexander Must Go" campaign was mounted by CLR James, then the editor of The Nation. "The idea of Alexander captaining a side on which Frank Worrell is playing," he wrote, "is to me quite revolting."