Harare: West Indies captain Shai Hope Saturday questioned the attitude and preparedness of his players after their shocking exit from the race to qualify for the World Cup in India.
The two-time former title winners will not feature in the 50-over World Cup for the first time in 48 years, since the competition’s inception back in 1975.
The team from the Caribbean was on Saturday eliminated after their seven-wicket loss to Scotland in a Super Six match, a contest in which they yet again produced a dismal show both with the bat and the ball.
“To be honest, it’s not one thing I can put my finger on. We certainly let ourselves down in the tournament,” Hope told the broadcaster after West Indies’ shocking exit.
“It really has to do with the attitude. The fielding is an attitude according to me, catches will be dropped and misfields will happen, that’s a part of the game and I feel that we did not give 100 per cent effort every time, we did it in patches.
“It starts with the foundation — from back home, the preparation needs to be better. We cannot come here and expect to be an elite team without preparation. You can’t expect to wake up one morning and be a great team,” he added.
Hope, who himself had a decent tournament with the bat, said West Indies needed to relook their game plan.
“We need to look at how we start our innings definitely,” said Hope, who had scored 132 against Nepal.
“We knew it would be challenging. The toss is always crucial but we need to find a way to counter that early movement. Every single captain who wins the toss here decides to bowl first and we needed to counter that early morning moisture. We need to give the West Indian fans something to cheer about.”
The captain-wicketkeeper said the West Indies team would look to make the most of the last two games here, which are going to be inconsequential since they are out of the race to qualify for the World Cup in India.
Hope said, “We have two more games and we need to find a way to bounce back. The talent is there, I always believe that, but we need to translate that into consistent performances.”
With Daren Sammy taking over as the white-ball head coach ahead of their ODI series against UAE in Sharjah in June, there were high hopes of the two-time T20 World Cup winning captain bringing about a big change in the Windies ranks.
However, according to Hope, more time is required for the group to understand each other. “We have to understand each other even more and we have to go one way and that’s up,” he said.
PTI
