BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - AFTER suffering a shocking exit in the first round of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup in Australia, President of Cricket West Indies, Ricky Skerritt has vowed to review the performance of the regional side.
West Indies entered the tournament in the first round because of poor performance over the last year and an even more disastrous performance in the 2021 edition of the World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, which saw the men in maroon dropping out from the top eight in the world ranking.
With many of the players coming off successful stints in the recently-concluded Caribbean Premier League T20 Tournament, including Kyle Myers, Nicholas Pooran and Brandon King, there were high expectations for the team to make an impact.
But that did not go according to plan, as in their opening game of the tournament they went down to Scotland in a shocking 42-run beating.
Chasing 161 for victory, they were bowled out for 118 in 18 overs.
They would however rebound by scraping over the line in a 31-run victory over Zimbabwe, bringing hope that the team saw off the struggles to turn the corner.
But that was all it could have been, as they were again shut out against a side ranked below them.
Needing a win to qualify for the main tournament, the West Indies faltered due to poor batting from the senior players.
They posted a below par 146 for 5 off their allotted 20 overs and their bowlers were helpless as Ireland coasted to the target - ending on 150 for 1 in 17.3 overs.
That prompted a strong rebuke from the CWI President, who in a statement expressed “disappointment” with the team’s performance in Australia, supporting the frustration felt by the wider Caribbean public.
“The ongoing inability of our batsmen to prevail over opposing slow bowling continues to be an obvious weakness in Australia, and untimely shot selections seem to be deeply embedded in the T20 batting culture of our senior team,” noted Skerritt.
To this end, he said that a postmortem would be undertaken to review all aspects of the team before, during and after the disaster in Australia.
“However, I want to assure stakeholders that a thorough postmortem will be carried out on all aspects of our world cup preparation, performance, and that solutions will be in keeping with CWI’s strategy to improve the quality and sustainability of cricket on all fronts and in all formats,” the CWI president declared.
The West Indies team entered T20 World Cups as among the favourites to take home the title due to their love of the format, because of their power hitting and attacking nature.
