West Indies white-ball captain Nicholas Pooran has vowed to use his side’s injury-plagued first-round exit in the T20 World Cup as “motivation” to bounce back strongly. After losses against Scotland and then Ireland, the West Indies failed to get the T20 World Cup right for the first time.
“Obviously, we don’t know what the future holds, but we’ll take it day by day,” Pooran said on the sidelines of the Super50 Cup, West Indies’ regional one-day tour, where he will lead Trinidad & Tobago. . “Again, it was a learning experience for all of us and this is our journey and our story. Time will tell what happens, but for now it’s just about focusing on ourselves and how we can improve as individuals.
“The rest is the last [way to heal] and every player needs that, but even inside it’s still hurting. I want to use that injury as motivation and definitely come back strong.”
The reaction to the West Indies’ early exit was sharp and swift, with CWI president Ricky Skerritt blaming the attackers and promising a “full post mortem”. Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting was also critical of the West Indies’ performances, calling their first-round exit a “disgrace”. Phil Simmons, meanwhile, has stepped down as coach, with his final assignment set to be a two-Test series in Australia starting next month.
Pooran suggested that he would not retire as captain but try to learn from these setbacks. “I have been thinking for the last two months…Playing cricket is my dream and obviously I have also had my test in life and this is another test for me,” he said. “I’m a person who embraces challenges and this was just another one for me.
“It won’t stop me. I’ll continue to learn from my experiences and again I’m happy to wake up in the morning and see that I have an opportunity to play cricket again.”
Pooran’s immediate focus will be to help Trinidad & Tobago defend their Super50 title, with the tour scheduled to begin on October 31. He will captain a team that will include Sunil Narine, Akeal Hosein and Yannic Cariah. In terms of West Indies commitments, Pooran is set for a long break, with the side’s T20I tour of Pakistan in January 2023 being rescheduled to 2024. As a result, West Indies will not play any white-ball cricket until a full tour of South Africa in February-March next year.
It takes some honest soul searching to find the answers – Johnny Grave
Johnny Grave, the chief executive of the CWI, has stated that he will not be stepping down from his role following the West Indies T20 World Cup debacle.
“I don’t control that. My contract ends in June 2023. But am I resigned? Am I going to resign? No, I’m not,” Grave said in Mason and guest radio show.
He said the West Indies need “sincere soul-searching” from the players as well as the management. “For whatever reason we didn’t execute under pressure in Hobart,” Grave said. “Now, has there been too much pressure on the team? Why didn’t the players implement those skills?
“Why did they effectively, like us in 2021, get off to the worst possible start? We all know that in tournament sports, teams that start well try to carry that momentum through the event. And in 2021, we we got off to a terrible start – not just losing to England, but losing in such a way that your net rate will never recover.
“And unfortunately, in that opening game [this time], the same thing happened to us again. Yes, we were able to bounce back and beat Zimbabwe, although perhaps not as convincingly as any of our fans or we would have liked. And then at the end of the day, even against Ireland, we know from playing them in January, they’re a full member of the ICC, they’re not a walk in the park for any team now. But we had to find a way to win and get over the line. And we didn’t. And that’s why we need this review. This is why we need honest soul searching, because we need to find the answers.
“There are things in West Indies cricket that are not world class and not even eighth in the world. We are way below that in some of the elements of our cricket system. Some of them [include] execution under pressure, winning key moments in games. More often than not we seem to come second in those situations. And that’s why we have to think very carefully about how we build this independent review – while I’m saying independent review, that would be my preference. It can’t be just players or coaches. It should be people who understand and have been successful in setting up strategies and structures, as well as players who have executed them. We have received information from our players and are digging deep.”
West Indies’ overall T20I record in 2022 has been so poor that their win-loss ratio of 0.53 is the second worst among teams that have played at least 15 matches during the period. Only Bangladesh have fared worse than them on this front this year. And since their title triumph in the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, West Indies have lost six of their eight matches in the tournament. Grave asked the West Indies to find some quick fixes and improve their results.
“Our winning side in 2016, the players I spoke to from 2021 were really shocked that they weren’t able to win and do well,” Grave said. “But we have to be able to ask the right questions, get the answers, and then analyze them properly and come up with some really clear, short-term, medium-term and long-term. [recommendations].
“We’ve got to get some quick wins and some quick fixes because the West Indies are hurting, and they want results and they want them fast. And if we don’t get them, then we probably won’t have the time or the opportunity to execute the objectives long term, because we will all be given our marching orders and it will be up to someone else to take on this great challenge and great responsibility.
“I didn’t come into this role and I don’t think anyone comes into West Indies cricket thinking it’s going to be easy, thinking there are magic wands. I don’t think Desmond Haynes (chief selector) thought he was suddenly going to picked the teams and they would win in all formats. Of course, I didn’t think we would come and it would be a bed of roses, but we have to work cooperatively. We have to find answers to these tough questions and we have to continue our work for the betterment of West Indies cricket.”
