Australian cricket legend Ricky Ponting has ripped into the West Indies following their early exit from the T20 World Cup, labeling the side’s performance a “disgrace”.
The West Indies failed to qualify for the Super 12 stage of the tournament after suffering heavy defeats to Scotland and Ireland in Hobart this week.
Ponting — the three-time ODI World Cup champion — didn’t hold back on Saturday in an interview with reporters ahead of Australia’s T20 opener against New Zealand at the SCG.
“It’s a disgrace as far as I’m concerned. It’s so bad for their cricket,” Ponting said.
“I think their president has already been out today talking about just how unacceptable it is.
“They’ve got too much talent in that team and in the West Indies cricket not to make it through to the next stage of a World Cup.
“Even one of their main players not making it to the fight to get over here for a World Cup sort of sums up probably these events mean to the West Indies players.
Extraordinary result in Tassie
2 time winners @windiescricket out
@cricketireland through. pic.twitter.com/CYrwVAwAfe— Mark Howard (@MarkHoward03) October 21, 2022
“And if you looked at the way they played, you’d probably say the same thing. (Nicholas) Pooran and these guys, they’re much better players then what we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks.
“So no doubt there’ll be some soul-searching done when they get back, and I reckon the next series they play there will be a lot of different faces in their side because the guys they’re going with now are certainly not getting the job done.”
Ponting said he held out hope the West Indies could produce fast bowlers to rival the greats of the 20th century but feared for their short-term future, including the upcoming Australian summer where they will play two Tests Down Under.
“I was anyway (concerned), to be honest,” he said. “I didn’t need to see that to make me more worried about the first couple of Test matches.
“Interestingly, mainly at home, but they’ve actually found a way to be reasonably competitive on the Test front with (Kraigg) Braithwaite and (Jason) Holder’s done a really good job and looks like a good leader.
“But they’re going to have to find a few lengths if they’re going to compete against the Aussies. The current group that the Australians have got, if you line them up on paper there’s no way that they can compete, cricket’s a funny game. But they’re going to have to play out of their skins to make even the first two Tests entertaining.”
The West Indies will face Australia in a two-match Test series this summer, with the first fixture scheduled to get underway at Perth Stadium on November 30.
“They’re going to have to find a few lengths if they’re going to compete against the Aussies,” Ponting said.
“The current group that the Australians have got, if you line them up on paper there’s no way that they can compete, cricket’s a funny game. But they’re going to have to play out of their skins to make even the first two Tests entertaining.” Australian cricket legend Ricky Ponting concluded
I have update this post for our the west Indies cricket fans and the officials of the WICB. Over the years the west indies was a unit of great individual self belief. From since I started listening to Toney Cozier comments and broadcast from the early 80″s to his death, there was something that always stood out to my young ears, the manner in witch he described our players on the field. It was as if they had a sense of pride and purpose in their cricket. Sometimes I though Toney was boasting to the other commentators. Even he had that confidence that we couldn’t loose to any team in world cricket. What our players had wasn’t any coach or financial aspirations of getting rich from cricket. they were driven by was an aspirations and motivation to win and be the best.
I realized the world is fast changing and cultures are eroding drastically. However we are not adjusting to the fast pace T20 we are where we are today and the entire game of cricket globally is moving in a different direction. As to the introduction of Kerry Packer in the 80″, the Stanford and IPL, cricket has a new desire, commerse and economics. It boils down to economics so most players are caught up on making money. There the passion is lacking.Plus the four top teams with moneywill have a bigger impact on our players loyalty thus impacting our players national pride also influencing the ICC. A good example of what I mean is Hytmyer , the west indies team dropped him for disiplanary reason, do you think the IPL body will support the WICB in enforcing that discipline on that player. I doubt that notion very much, simple because Hytmyer is box office so wont be left out of their draft. However this is another topic for another discussion.
The main point I want to bring to the WICB is that we need to change our white ball coaching setup. I could see some development and improvement in the test team however the coaching setup in the whiteball aspect of the modern cricket is a total failure. The authorities would argue that the players are not executing their talents and skills on the field. Oh a fielder dropped 2 catches in the last over so it’s his fault, the death over was poorly executed by a particular bowler so it’s the bowlers fault, the batters cause us to loose because they not building partnership, now its we are using wrong bowlers in power play is the last one. The reality is the coaching is out of depth with whiteball cricket and the rapidly changing dynamics of the game today. Phil Simmons should have been sacked a long time before the 20/20 world cup commenced . If he was coaching any of the top four powerhouse in international whiteball cricket he will be gone. If a football, soccer, basketball, baseball coach had such a losing record they will be sack by their organization.
So fans of west indies cricket stop pointing fingers at the selection, the captain the players, it’s simple a matter of our coaching team can’t motivate the players. We are so consistent in losing easy matches, If you look at the team performances over the past 2 years , I am focusing on our whiteball cricket ( ODI & T20) we are finding anyway possibly to loose cricket matches. So today we have reap what we so. Not qualifying for the second round. Hope we wake up now.