West Indies fail to reach World Cup

THE two-time World Champions, West Indies have reached a historic low and will not take part in this year’s edition of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s World Cup after a crushing seven wickets defeat at the hands of Scotland at Harare Sports Club on Saturday.

Saturday’s Super Six defeat meant that the Windies can’t reach the final of the 2023 Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers and this will be the first time-ever in the history of the sport that the World Cup is played without them.

Only two teams from the qualifiers can progress to the World Cup and the West Windies are officially out of contention.

Going into Saturday’s game, Darren Sammy’s charges needed to win all their Super Six games to keep their slim hopes of progressing to the global showpiece alive. They lost two group matches against the Netherlands and the hosts, Zimbabwe, thus went to the Super Six with zero points and winning all their three games would have seen them finish on six points, and hope that other results from other matches go their way.

The moment has been described as a day to forget in West Indies cricket, who are the second most successful side in World Cup history after Australia.

The news was received with shock throughout the world, with Indian legend, Virendar Sehwag slamming the team for their performances and off field issues.

“What a shame. West Indies fail to qualify for the World Cup. Just shows talent alone isn’t enough, needs focus and good man management, free from politics. The only solace is there isn’t further low to sink from here,” Sewhag posted on his Twitter account.

Another Indian great, Wassim Jaffer also took to social media to relay his disappointment at what has happened to the Caribbean side. He is, however, hopeful that they will find their feet again and return to the top.

“Such a shame that the West Indies won’t be there at the World Cup. Caribbean cricket has officially hit rock bottom. But when you hit rock bottom, the only way is up,” Jaffer posted on Twitter.

In the previous edition of the World Cup which was hosted by England in 2019, the West Indies had to go through the qualifiers again to book their spot in the global showpiece, which they managed to do, alongside Afghanistan.

Coincidentally, on their way to the World Cup in England in 2019, the West Indies eliminated Scotland in a rain hit encounter that was played at Harare Sports Club.

On Saturday, needing nothing short of victory, the West Indies were sent in to bat first and were bowled out for just 181 runs in 43,5 overs before Scotland chased it down in 43,3 overs, finishing on 185/3.

West Indies skipper, Shai Hope said a lot has to be done at the foundation level in order to assist the team reach where they hope to be, adding that they can’t just wake up and be a great team.

“The issues for West Indies start from the foundation of the game back home, we can’t come here and expect to be an elite team without that backing and preparation. It starts from the foundation. Preparation needs to be better.

“That’s from back home, so, yeah, it starts from there. We can’t just expect to wake up one morning and be a great team.

There are a lot of things that we need to focus on and, yeah, we need to control what we can control. Right now, we are here playing cricket, and we need to make sure we give our all to the West Indian fans,” said Hope.

The West Indies are left with two matches before they head back home. Their next match is on Wednesday against Oman before they go on to round up their tournament against Sri Lanka who have already qualified for the World Cup. – @brandon_malvin