Monday, June 26th will long be remembered by West Indian cricket fans for all the wrong reasons.
Their team, inexplicably, suffered a shock super over defeat to the Netherlands in an ICC World Cup Qualifiers group fixture after failing to defend a mammoth 374.
With a loss like that, questions have been raised about the confidence of the team going into the rest of the qualifiers.
Captain, Shai Hope, answered some of those questions in a press conference on Tuesday.
“Certainly, there’s going to be a lot of pain and hurt in the dressing room but we know that there’s still always a chance for us to move to the next step,” he said.
“We’re always talking about communicating amongst each other and the main thing right now is to get the guys as uplifted as possible to make sure we get the best result going into the next game,” Hope added.
One thing is for certain, people in the Caribbean are not happy with the team’s performance, something Hope says is justified.
“It’s completely understandable but, one thing I can guarantee is that you guys will never be as deflated as us. I’m sure that the pain is even more severe here in the dressing room,” he said.
As if having to play in the ICC World Cup Qualifiers wasn’t bad enough, that loss made it all the more possible that, for the first their history, they may fail to make it to the ICC Cricket World Cup.
This is how the points system works for the super sixes stage at the qualifiers: When you defeat a team in your group that also advanced to the super sixes, you take those points along with you.
So, Zimbabwe and the Netherlands both advanced from Group A alongside the West Indies. Zimbabwe beat both the West Indies and the Netherlands, meaning they already have four points while the Netherlands have two points.
From Group B, Sri Lanka already has four points while Scotland has two meaning the West Indies will start the super sixes stage in fifth place, only ahead of Oman. The top two teams at the end of the super sixes stage advance to the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup in India later this year.
With that said, the West Indies will need to go unbeaten to have any chance of advancing.
The skipper says this won’t be possible without the support of the region.
“The one thing I can ask from you guys is to continue supporting us. We’re certainly trying to put our best out there. The results won’t always go our way but we definitely need to find ways to turn it around quickly,” he said.
“We have a huge legacy behind us and we know that but we have to create our own legacy as well and ensure that, whatever we do, that we’re representing the people of the West Indies proudly,” Hope added.
The West Indies will begin their super sixes campaign against Scotland on July 1.