The white captain era of West Indian cricket

The British Caribbean colonies competed in international cricket under the name of "West Indies" starting in 1928. Until 1960 there was an unwritten rule that the captain of the team should be white, even though most of the players were Black. For this reason some of the most talented players were denied the captaincy.<br><br>This paper estimates the cost in terms of team performance attributable to the white captain policy. It also models the team player selection process based on player records from first class matches, which were usually used as a key selection criterion.<br><br>The paper shows that not only did white players generally underperform their teammates in international matches, but that this was predictable based on first class performance.