Pollard gives Windies’ World Cup performance a passing grade

Former West Indies white-ball captain, Kieron Pollard, believes the regional side put up a commendable showing at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, despite failing to reach the semifinals after a promising start.

The Windies won their opening four preliminary matches to finish top of Group C and began their Super Eights campaign in winning fashion by comprehensively defeating Zimbabwe.

However, they failed to win another game, with successive defeats to South Africa and India resulting in them being eliminated.

When asked about the team’s performance in India, Pollard, who captained the West Indies in ODIs and T20Is between 2019 and 2022, said they gave a good account of themselves.

“For me, I would give them a passing grade. I think they played pretty well in this World Cup. They did well.

“Leading up into the World Cup, they would have played a couple series, guys would not have been confident, but I just thought they carried about themselves pretty well,” Pollard said.

“Some are going to argue the point that when we met the full nations per se, we didn’t win,…when you look at it, when you play India in India, and you score 190-plus, I think we had a fighting chance.

“When they played against South Africa, they had a fighting chance, but the determination was there where they put up a sizeable total (176 for eight), so I think it is something we can work with,” he added.

Pollard, 38, who captained the team at the 2021 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates when they were knocked out at the group stage, advocated for a more united effort and patience in support of the players.

“We just need to continue the development, but when you look around, that’s the cream of the crop we have in the Caribbean, so if we want, we can go and be negative and have knee-jerk reactions.

“In order for success to happen, I just believe that we need to come together a bit more and carry those positive vibes and energy so it can go over into the guys so they can perform,” Pollard said.

“We want to win World Cups, yes we have done it before, but it doesn’t take overnight for that to happen.”

CMC