Two-time World champions West Indies failed to qualify for the upcoming ICC World Cup 2023 to be played in India, after they lost to Scotland in the ongoing Qualifiers in Zimbabwe. And some of the former and current West Indies stars have shared their heartbroken reactions to the same.
Ian Bishop alongside Carlos Brathwaite dissected West Indies’ unsuccessful campaign and discussed what went wrong for the Shai Hope led side.
This was West Indies’ first-ever ODI loss to Scotland and it couldn’t have come at a worst time for them, when they were struggling to keep their heads above water in the tournament, as earlier defeats to Zimbabwe and Netherlands had already made qualification through the Super Six stage difficult.
“It’s been written and signed. It’s been a dramatic fall from grace for the former two times winner of the Cricket World Cup, two time World T20 champions. Nothing has worked for them be it change of captain, change of coach, change who you want, the results have still gone against what was expected,” Bishop told Carlos Brathwaite in a post-match conversation posted by the ICC.
“West Indies are a full member nation. They must have come with a high hope but the group stages were disappointment in the level of performance certainly in the field and with the bat, it begs the question is it an acceptable level by the West Indies’ display,” he added.
This is not the first time West Indies failed to qualify for a tournament as in 2017, they failed to qualify for the Champions Trophy and they also failed to qualify for the Super 12s of the last year’s T20 World Cup.
Carlos Braithwaite says the West Indies team lacked professionalism and it was as low as it could get for the Men in Maroon.
“It has been a long time coming. We missed out on T20 World Cup last year. There has been troubles in the past but this is the lowest you can go,” he said.
“They got over against USA but they didn’t managed to roll them over or even bowl them out. It wasn’t clinical enough. As a result the same attitude then transpired and it became worse as they went on.
They got found out against Netherlands and Zimbabwe, who were more professional opponents. Sikandar Raza and Ryan Burl made them pay and then against Netherlands they were paid for their low standard. Against Scotland they bolted and this is the end result. In the last 18 ODIs. we have only managed to get ten wickets on seven occasions. There is a challenge in getting team bowled out,” Brathwaite added.
Bishop and Brathwaite also discussed what are the probable causes of the decline in West Indies cricket.
Bishop stated: “Is it a procurement of talent? Is it a grassroot issue? Is it a support staff issue? Is the talent still there? What’s the challenge going forward?”
Braithwaite then said: “There are lot of issues. Sherfane Rutherford, Oshaine Thomas and Fabien Allen were in the 2019 World Cup team and four years later you are looking for a new crop. You can’t continuously do that.”
Identification of talent is one thing but how do you develop that talent is something that needed to be done. There needs to be a system if a guy has been identified then there should be a clear pathway for first-class in the regional cricket to A team to International cricket and then how you consistently backed it with a right brand of cricket, right structure to ensure not only success is periodically but need to sustain that success,” he said.
Bishop ended the conversation by saying, “It’s systemic and you need to change your system.”
Two teams qualify for the Cricket World Cup from the tournament. Sri Lanka is favorite with host Zimbabwe, Scotland and the Netherlands the remaining contenders.
(ICC inputs)
