London: Veteran West Indies seamer Michael Holding on Saturday said that Shimron Hetmyer's decision to not travel to England for the three-Test series due to safety concerns arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic should be respected though the team will miss "them".
Besides Bravo and Hetmyer, Keemo Paul also refused to travel to the UK for the Wisden Trophy starting July 8.
"I think it's unfortunate as far as West Indies cricket is concerned. I'm not going to tell anyone that they should be going to England because COVID-19 is around, someone may get sick or even worse.
"But at the same time I think it's unfortunate for the West Indies team because these guys have quite a bit of talent, and they'll be missed," Holding said on his Youtube channel.
Holding said England series would have been a good chance for Bravo to revive his career after being dropped for the Afghanistan Test in November.
"I'm sorry that Bravo in particular isn't going because Bravo, I think, needs to resuscitate his career. He started off so brilliantly, everybody thought he was going to be another great West Indian batsman.
"He hasn't really fulfilled that. I think the more cricket he can play now, especially for West Indies, the better chance he has of getting back on track and showing everyone the great player that he could be."
On the highly rated Hetmyer, Holding added: "Hetmyer, again, I think he's a very, very talented player. I think people have heard me talk about him in the past. Again, I'm sorry that he's not going so that he can get more opportunity to express himself. But I ain't blaming them for not going."
