Former West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard on Monday (October 24) expressed his surprise and disappointment at the team's early exit from the T20 World Cup 2022, saying that all the stakeholders must share the blame.
Perhaps the most dominant team in the shortest format, West Indies were eliminated from the competition in the qualifying rounds after losing to Scotland and Ireland.
The two-time T20 World Cup champions lost to Scotland in their opening match of the preliminary round but defeated Zimbabwe to maintain their Super 12 qualification chances. However, they were knocked out of the showpiece ICC tournament as a result of Ireland's emphatic victory over them.
"A bit surprised, to be honest that (West Indies) weren't able to get over the line against the other teams," Pollard told i95.5fm, a Trinidad-based radio station.
"But again, that speaks volumes of where our cricket is at the moment. I feel it. I feel it for the guys because they are the ones that are going to get the bashing. And it's not all their fault."
West Indies’ early ouster garnered reactions from across the cricketing world. While CWI president Ricky Skerritt issued a statement saying a "post-mortem" would be carried out, former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting termed the debacle as a "disgrace".
Pollard said, "We have a young captain, we have young players, guys who would have played only a handful of (matches in) T20 cricket and now they are in the World Cup.
"And when I look back at it, I sit back and I have a smile on my face. Because I remember some of the things that was said last year around this time, when some individuals weren't selected.
"I just had to remind these people that there was a World Cup we were going to (in 2021) and another bilateral series (in New Zealand). And now some of the individuals get the opportunity to play in the World Cup. And, again, look what has happened. It's no fault of theirs," he said.
"But when we tried to sort of protect them and let people understand (in 2021), they were not ready for that, we were lambasted. There were a lot of things that were said that were very derogatory at times. It's a sad day for West Indies cricket and all of us."
(With PTI inputs)
