Where’s the hunger, desire?

The West Indies lacked these two qualities as they failed to qualify for the ICC ODI World Cup to be held in October-November this year in India; team selection was warped as well

As a West Indies commentator, who along with the late Tony Cozier covered West Indies winning the 1975 and 1979 World Cups, not qualifying for the next World Cup is a deep disappointment. Yet, in my heart of hearts like most West Indians, I did not expect the team to get to India for the October-November 2023 event.

There is merit in the current criticism simply because the West Indies were inferior to other teams at the qualifiers in Zimbabwe, across several games. But I would go back to the blunder made by the selectors in 2021. Instead of looking to youth for the T20 World Cup, they picked a side that we called Dad’s Army here. There was Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and even Ravi Rampaul. A practical selection would have been to pick a side that would serve the West Indies better in the next World tournaments. In Zimbabwe, we needed to beat Zimbabwe for us to go forward, but did not expect to be beaten by the Netherlands and Scotland. 

Poor bowling

New coach Darren Sammy did not expect the bowling and fielding would be at such a low level even though  we won our first games against United States and Nepal through the batting of Shai Hope, Nicholas Pooran, and Johnson Charles. Overall, the West Indies lack the ability to fight back when they are down. The inconsistency of squads in all aspects of the game has been a contributing factor for the mess we find ourselves in. And poor selection is a continuance of what was happening over the last four years with teams picked when Phil Simmons was coach.

Also Read: World Cup Qualifier: 'All is not lost,' says Jason Holder after West Indies' loss

I wouldn’t like to criticise skipper Hope, He was under great pressure. He just didn’t have the bowling to penetrate the opposition and the bowlers were all over the place. After all, you can’t set fields for bad bowling. Alzarri Joseph didn’t have a partner of genuine pace. The West Indies had similar bowlers in Zimbabwe and that is where the selectors missed a trick. They ought to have picked left-arm pacer Dominic Drakes. By the way, we have a very odd selection system—only two selectors (Desmond Haynes and Roland Butcher) when other nations have four or five. 

Sammy running out of time

Time is not on coach Sammy’s side as the West Indies will run into a world-class India soon. For the white-ball series, Sammy may have to convince selectors Haynes and Butcher to reach out to Shimron Hetmyer, Evin Lewis, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell.

West Indies have reached a stage where solutions—however well thought out they are—will probably not work, because at the heart of the Caribbean’s cricket crisis is a lack of hunger and desire. And I am not alone in that assessment. 

Reds Perreira has been a broadcaster since 1971.

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