Quick view to West Indies
West Indies was eliminated from contention to advance to the ODI World Cup 2023 in India. Of October and November after losing their Super Six match against Scotland on Saturday in the World Cup Qualifiers.
The two-time world champion will not appear in this edition for the first time. The preliminaries, when Shai Hope’s team was considered the favoured along with Sri Lanka. Ended up being a forgettable event as it suffered three defeats.
Ian Bishop and Carlos Brathwaite, two former West Indies greats, speak exclusively about the unsuccessful campaign. They said that caused the team to lose the opportunity to compete in a Cricket World Cup.
This is “the lowest you can go,” according to West Indies great Carlos Brathwaite, even if the warning flags were present early in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2023 campaign. Along with fellow West Indies star Ian Bishop, the winner of the 2016 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup final was left speechless. As they attempted to understand how the once-dominant nation had lost the race for a position at the championship tournament in India later this year.
Nicholas Pooran smashes second ton for West Indies
“It has been a dramatic fall from grace from the former two-time winners of the Cricket World Cup, two-time World (Cup) T20 champions as well,” Bishop said.
“Change the captain, change the coach, change who you want, the results have still gone against what was expected”. If we go back to the start of this tournament, the West Indies would have come in with high hopes as a full member nation.
“But the group stages were a disappointment in the level of performance, certainly in the field and with the bat.”
When the next T20 World Cup is staged in 2024 between the Caribbean and the USA, West Indies already has a spot secured and can begin to make plans for a much more capable campaign at home.
Alick Athanaze, Kevin Wickham, and Jayden Seales were mentioned by Bishop as promising young players who should be given chances. While Kevin Sinclair, a developing spinner, was only included in their Qualifier team because Yannic Cariah suffered an injury.
In addition to being overlooked, Sherfane Rutherford, Oshane Thomas, and Fabian Allen could make a case for recall after competing for the West Indies at the 2019 Cricket World Cup.
West Indies greats react to dire qualification campaign
West Indies legends Ian Bishop and Carlos Brathwaite exclusively discuss what went wrong as their former side crashed out of the race for a spot at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in India
“It has been a long time coming,” Brathwaite said.
“Obviously another format, T20, missed out (on the Super 12 stage) as well last year. So in white-ball cricket, there has been troubles in the past.
“I think this is the lowest you can go.”
West Indies’ first-ever ODI loss to Scotland sealed their fate, though earlier defeats to Zimbabwe and Netherlands had already made qualification through the Super Six stage difficult. Entering the critical stage of the tournament with zero points meant West Indies had little room for error and most likely needed to win all three remaining matches, but they stumbled at the first hurdle.
The final nail is delivered by Scotland
The do-or-die game on Saturday began with West Indies being asked to bat. Its hitters came up short in the match that mattered most. Kyle Mayers, Shamarh Brooks, and Charles all received single-digit grades. Although, the squad could only manage 181,
Holder and Romario Shephard offered some key rearguard to bring the number closer to 200. The start of Scotland’s run-chase was less than ideal as Christopher McBride failed on the first delivery. If Mayers had held onto Brandon McMullen’s catch, the situation may have been lot worse. He was 21 at the time. McMullen scored 69 runs in total as Scotland secured a seven-wicket victory.
West Indies’ shoddy fielding was a recurring problem during the qualifiers. Both the captain and the coach stressed the West Indies’ missed opportunities and the need for improvement.
Furthermore, the batters were accountable for losing momentum by failing to capitalize on their initial gains. Perhaps the long-awaited seismic changes in West Indies cricket would be brought about by a more thorough investigation of the scandal. Cricket is currently adjusting to the absence of the West Indies from its quadrennial championship match.
