By Anthony Foster, Freelance WriterNEW JAMAICA cricket captain Gareth Breese anticipates challenging times ahead but says it is an honour to lead his country.
"Leading a team is always challenging, especially with a lot of new players," Breese said of the forthcoming Carib Beer regional four-day series.
"It's going to be challenging but I think the key to it all is going to be if we play as a team," he added.
Breese's first challenge will be when Jamaica tackle the Windward Islands in their opening game in St. Lucia on January 9.
The 27-year-old Breese, who captained the West Indies Youth team on the tour of Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1995, said playing as a team "is going to be the emphasis and to help each other through."
The former Lucas captain was selected as the successor to Robert Samuels at a meeting of the Jamaica Cricket Associa-tion's (JCA) directors at Sabina Park on Tuesday evening.
TOP PERFORMERS
Despite whispers that only Robert Samuels could get the respect of the Jamaicans representing the West Indies, Breese, who will play for Durham in the English County Championship next season, said: "I get along fine with all the guys. I think being one of the top performers over the past couple years has helped me to gain even more respect.
"It's always good when you can perform in a team, so I am not worried about gaining the respect of the players. The only thing I need to look about is to make sure my performance is up there this year."
Although West Indies opener Wavell Hinds was tipped to take over from Samuels, Breese said he does not expect any conflict when the Test player returns to the national side.
"I don't see any conflict, Wavell and I have always been very close, we consider ourselves friends, so from that I don't think there will be any problems at all."
Breese said his personal aim was to perform better than before and stay fit.
Despite the absence of the West Indies 'stars', Breese, who represented the West Indies once in a Test against India, said he disagreed that the new-look Jamaica side was ordinary.
"Our talent pool has always been one that is very highly regarded around the Caribbean, so basically we just have more talented people getting a chance to show themselves right now," said Breese.
The proposed 13-man squad, which the JCA submitted to the West Indies Cricket Board, is: Andrew Richardson, Evon McInnis, Shawn Findlay, Brenton Parchment, David Bernard Jr., Odean Brown, Lorenzo Ingram, Donovan Pagon, Maurice Kepple, Gareth Breese, Dwight Mais, Mario Ventura and Keith Hibbert.
