West Indies batting legend Brian Lara reckons missing an important competition such as ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 was a huge setback to West Indies cricket in more than one way.
West Indies failed to get a direct ODI World Cup qualification as they failed to finish amongst the top eight in the ODI Rankings. The team had to play the ICC ODI World Cup 2024 Qualifiers in Zimbabwe where Sri Lanka and Netherlands pipped them to book the ticket for the ten-team showpiece.
The next global cricket showpiece will be the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 in June, which is scheduled to be held in the West Indies and the USA.
Lara – who has scored the most runs for the West Indies in the ODI World Cup history (1225 between 1992 and 2007) – had a brief conversation, on the sidelines of a golf event in Haryana, where he discussed West Indies Cricket and India’s loss at the ODI World Cup 2023.
When asked how big it was a blow for West Indies for failing to make it to the 2023 World Cup held in India, the 54-year-old said,
“Missing any World Cup is a massive setback, it’s as simple as that. The West Indies not making it to the World Cup is obviously very disappointing. So obviously, it’s very disappointing not just for the players but for the public as well and maybe even financially.”
Lara hopes West Indies, who are going to be the co-hosts of the showpiece event, will redeem themselves by winning the tournament.
“This (T20) World Cup now in 2024, will be played on our home turf and hopefully, we can justify being there by actually going on to win the World Cup. We didn’t make it to the 50-over World Cup it’s a bit disappointing,” he added further.
Asked if there is a dip in the interest in the youth in the Caribbean towards the Gentlemen’s Game as youngsters are doing exceedingly well in athletics but the same couldn’t be said about cricket, Lara admitted that cricket talent hasn’t been harnessed the way it should have in the West Indies.
“Athletics has always been around in the West Indies (and the youth has always looked to do well). But when it comes to cricket, I think we haven’t been able to harness the talent that we have in the right way and if we start doing that, you are going to see the results,” he signed off.