Former West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan believes that it was inconsistent cricket from the West Indies that led to their disappointing performance in the 2019 International Cricket Council World Cup.
West Indies won just two of their nine matches, beating Pakistan in the opening match and closing off their campaign in England with a win over Afghanistan.
They also had a drawn encounter against South Africa, a game affected by the weather.
“Judging from the start, there were high hopes but it was evident that they did not play to their full potential and that was quiet disappointing,” Sarwan told Stabroek Sport.
“Everyone did not play their role consistently and that caused them…” the former Guyana and West Indies middle-order batsman said.
Sarwan feels that had the side played to 80 percent consistency, the team would have been able to win games especially the close games.
In the opening match the West Indies bowlers dismissed Pakistan for 105 which the batsmen chased with minimal effort.
But thereafter the team’s campaign went downhill as for the remainder of the campaign the team’s batting let them down and although the team scored over 300 on three occasions, they only won one of the three matches.
West Indies bowling appeared one dimensional with a flurry of short deliveries throughout their campaign, which resulted in just 52 wickets, the third lowest of the tournament.
“They need to concentrate more, they were lacking match awareness and game situation,” said the 39-yerar-old Sarwan who said that this was nothing new since it has happened in the past.
West Indies failed to drive home their advantage against Australia eventually losing by 15 runs and against New Zealand fell five runs short in a remarkable chase.
Against New Zealand, West Indies had a golden opportunity to score a remarkable come-from-behind win through Carlos Brathwaite’s century but managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory when Brathwaite was caught going for the winning hit.
Sarwan said that Brathwaite could not be blamed for that loss.
“Had it been me in that position I would have done the same thing,” he said explaining “it was a 50-50 chance, if you see the opportunity to finish you go for it, he was batting with the number 11 batsman and you don’t want to risk giving him the strike because you don’t know if he is going to last one or two balls.”
Sarwan said that these situations are areas where West Indies need to improve if they are going to get far in One Day cricket.
He suggested that while playing in English conditions, especially from a warm territory might be difficult, they lacked the consistency.
“Sometimes you will be blasted out but if you are consistent then you can recover and be challenging but a lot of thing were not their including consistency.
“In some occasions where the batting clicked, the bowling let them down and vice versa and even when both clicked, the fielding let them down.”
Sarwan, though, was upbeat about the performances of some of the youngsters who will form a nucleus of the team in the future. The veteran of 181 One Day Internationals spoke highly of the batting displays of Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran and Shai Hope as well as the bowling of Sheldon Cottrell.
Pooran finished with an average of 52 and was the only batsman to pass 300 runs in the tournament for the West Indies. He slammed a century and two fifties and was the batting revelation of the tournament for the Windies while Hetmyer averaged 36 with two fifties.
Hope, who ended with an average of 34 struck three half centuries.
Cottrell finished as the leading wicket taker for the Caribbean side with a dozen wickets. Also under the microscope was the captaincy of Jason Holder and Sarwan said he disagreed with most cricket pundits who suggest Holder be sacked.
He did acknowledge, however, that Holder has performed better in the role as Test captain than One Day skipper.
“Holder has had his struggles in ODI. He has done well in test but as ODI captain he needs to be able to try different things, he was given the job young and with little to no experience and he has certainly improved, we have invested in him, we just need to wait and see,” he said.
Going forward, Sarwan envisions the improvement of being ranked ninth to the pinnacle of cricket. He, however, feels that the achievement is not a one year undertaking but “two, three years down the line.”
He is also suggesting that a balance be struck between the old and the new players playing consistently.
“I think setting a goal of winning the 2023 World Cup and improving our rankings must go hand-in-hand. We need to play consistent, winning 18 out of 25 matches will certainly see improvements and give the players a chance to improve,” Sarwan said.
“West Indies have been rebuilding for the longest while but we can’t just drop guys when they reach 29-30 [years], we have invested in them and they [West Indies Cricket] need to realize that getting rid of them so soon is not worth it, we need to stop acting on sentiment and find a balance with collective cricket, we have been doing it too long.”
Sarwan was also critical of pundits suggesting mental assistance to the players.
“If you as a player don’t know what works and what doesn’t for you then you are in serious trouble,” he declared.
“As coaches and managers and experienced persons, you got to teach the youngsters where they fell short, where they went wrong, let your opinion and concerns be voiced, make them understand, not imposing yourself on them but making the communication clear.”
He said that had all avenues been explored and the persistent mistakes remained then by all means the players needed to be dropped.
