The West Indies’ failure to reach the semifinal stage of the current ICC T20 World Cup did not surprise me. What happened to Kieron Pollard and his men in the United Arab Emirates and Oman is a lesson to everyone involved. The CWI selection panel ignored the signs. West Indies were the defending champions and within that team, there are world-class players, but they are ageing. This is where the regional team lost the plot.
Team in transition
This team is in transition and introducing younger players to replace key players whose international careers were ending, seemed to be the most logical solution. This called for astute planning and tough decisions by the selection panel, but what happened instead was unbelievable. Ad hoc selections and nonsensical utterances to justify the thoughtless planning and approach in which the Caribbean men were the defending champions.
To add to the chaos which occurred off the field, in the selectors’ room, there were key players who were not in the best of form, and that’s where things started to go downhill for Pollard and his team.
The power hitters never got going, including skipper Pollard. This disrupted the fluency of the team and also disturbed the mental capacity of the captain. Radio and television commentators questioned the unexplained field placings and bowling changes by Pollard.
Pollard also left the field mysteriously, while the regional team was batting against Bangladesh with no signs of a physical injury. An explanation came hours later, stating the West Indies captain had a leg injury. There was talk in some quarters around the Caribbean that the mounting pressure was getting to the West Indies skipper. Pollard, though, resumed his innings against Bangladesh in the final over.
The tour selection committee also missed the boat by their persistence to retain out of form forty-two (42) year old veteran Chris Gayle in the starting eleven for the first four crucial matches.
The Future
The big question is, where do the West Indies go from there? Are we going to have radical changes from captain to coach and the entire technical staff? Only Time Will Tell with this failed 2021 T20 ICC World Cup campaign behind us, that the rebuilding progress starts by those given the responsibility, then West Indies cricket will remain in the lineup to become World Champions once again.
