Former West Indies white-ball captain, Kieron Pollard, says the West Indies men’s national cricket team gave a commendable performance at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup despite failing to reach the semifinals.
The Windies won their first four preliminary matches to top Group C and started the Super Eights with a win over the Zimbabwe national cricket team. However, losses to South Africa team and India team ended their campaign.
When asked about the team’s performance in India, Pollard said he would still rate their overall performance positively.
“For me, I would give them a passing grade. I think they played pretty well in this World Cup. They did well.”
He noted the team showed confidence despite limited preparation.
“Leading up into the World Cup… guys would not have been confident, but I just thought they carried about themselves pretty well.”
While acknowledging criticism that they struggled against stronger teams, he pointed to competitive performances against India and South Africa.
“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 sizable total (176 for eight), so I think it is something we can work with.”
The 38-year-old Pollard also urged for patience and unity in supporting the team.
“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.
He added that rebuilding a championship team takes time.
“We want to win World Cups, yes we have done it before, but it doesn’t take overnight for that to happen,” he said.
