West Indies all-rounder Jason Holder appealed fellow cricketers to shun “territorial mindset” and come together “as a region” for good of the sport a day after the team failed to qualify for the ODI World Cup in India.
Earlier Two-time champions West Indies failed to qualify for 2023 ODI World Cup in India after suffering a shock seven-wicket defeat against Scotland in a Super Six match of the qualifier in Harare on Saturday.
The two time former title winners will not feature in the 50-over World Cup for the first time since the competition’s inception in 1975.
“It’s (cricket) not an individual thing or a territorial thing. We’ve got to come together as a region… and really, really think about how we we want to go forward as a group and make it happen,” Holder, one of the world’s top all-rounders said during the post-match press conference on Saturday.
The associations of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Trinidad & Tobago and Windward Islands together make up Cricket West Indies. Holder lamented that the West Indies team couldn’t put it across Scotland to keep their hopes alive.
The tall 31 year old cricketer added his team knew the importance of the contest against Scotland and had a real good chance, but couldn’t cross the line in the end.
“We knew what was at stake and we still had a chance to qualify. We had a really good opportunity to play Scotland and beat them (but) we didn’t do that.
The all-rounder indicated that work needs to be done from grassroots and up.
“It’s not a quick-fix, it’s something we need to spend time on. As I said, development (at grassroots) is the most important thing, where we can just put things in place and develop our talent. Hopefully, in the next couple of years we can see the fruits of that crop.”
He also said, “We need to look at the levels below (age-group and domestic cricket) as well and try our best to improve them as well. So, when these young guys get here (senior level), they have a good foundation. We all need to put our hands up and be accounted for as individuals.
“We just didn’t play well enough. We haven’t been playing well enough maybe over the past couple of years,” he added.