ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Cricket West Indies (CWI) President Ricky Skerritt has promised a full review of the Caribbean side’s shock exit from the Twenty20 World Cup.
In a short statement following West Indies’ chastening nine-wicket defeat to Ireland on Friday Skerritt said “all aspects … of the preparation and performance” would come under the microscope.
“I want to assure stakeholders that a thorough post-mortem will be carried out on all aspects of our World Cup preparation and performance, and that solutions will be found in keeping with CWI’s strategy, to improve the quality and sustainability of cricket on all fronts and in all formats,” Skerritt said.
“West Indies cricket is bigger than any one individual or event, and continues to need the input and support of all stakeholders.”
West Indies were forced to go through the qualifying series here for the October 22 to November 13 showpiece, after an abysmal showing in last year’s Twenty20 World Cup in United Arab Emirates where they lost four of five games to miss out on the semi-finals.
Installed in a four-team qualifying Group B here, West suffered a stunning 42-run loss to Scotland last Monday at Bellerive Oval in Hobart before rebounding to beat Zimbabwe by 31 runs on Wednesday.
With all four teams in the group on two points, West Indies headed into Friday’s contest against Ireland facing a must-win scenario but produced a meek performance to crash out of the tournament.
Opting to bat first, West Indies could only muster 146 for five and then watched as the Irish cantered to their target with 15 balls to spare.
Skerritt said there were obvious question marks over the “batting culture” of the West Indies unit.
“I am deeply disappointed with the performance results of our team in Australia and I appreciate the sense of utter frustration that is being experienced by many,” said Skerritt.
“The ongoing inability of our batsmen to prevail over opposing slow bowling continued to be an obvious weakness in Australia, and ultimately shot selections seem to be deeply embedded in the T20 batting culture of our senior team.”
West Indies are two-time former champions who last won the T20 World Cup in 2016 in India.
-CMC