WI Test Captain sees importance of county cricket

West Indies Test Captain Kraigg Brathwaite says county cricket remains important to a player’s cricketing education.

Brathwaite was speaking to BBC Radio West Midlands on Saturday on the eve of Warwickshire Cricket Club’s match against Northamptonshire at Edgbaston Cricket Ground this morning.

Noting that he would not be playing any international cricket until January, Brathwaite said “It (the loan spell at Warwickshire) came at a good time. I would always encourage our players to go and play cricket anywhere. It is all part of the learning.”

He added “Guys can play in the County Championship and go through all the different processes – failure, success. That is how you learn. Playing against Surrey and other good county teams is important to get in that frame of mind. County cricket and any four day cricket gives you balance.”

Brathwaite left Barbados late last Friday in order to meet up with the Bears squad that Sunday for the four day match against Surrey and fellow countryman Kemar Roach. They went on to lose by an innings and 79 runs at the Kia Oval with Brathwaite contributing scores of 16 and 9 in the two innings.

Such was his enthusiasm to return to England for his fifth stint of county cricket, he gave up the chance to play cricket at home. The right handed opener said “I had a tour to be on for Barbados – a select team to Bermuda. I had to cancel that which was a shame, as I had a young team I was looking forward to leading.”

In the wake of the current cricket calendar which is filled with franchise tournaments all over the world and players now decided to purely focus on white ball cricket, Kraigg noted it was important those outside of that bubble tested themselves against the red ball.

“Franchises are good because it enables the guys to make a living but for the guys who aren’t in the franchises, it’s important you get any cricket you can. Any cricket in England is always challenging. You always learn when playing any game and it’s always good playing first-class cricket,” Brathwaite said.

West Indies have five T20s and three one-day internationals against England in December but no test matches until January where they play world number one side Australia in Adelaide and Brisbane.