Former West Indies quick Kenny Benjamin has sounded a call for the Caribbean to rally behind the West Indies in their International Cricket Council’s T20 World Cup title defence.
Benjamin, now a coach, explained on the Mason and Guest radio programme that now was not the time to be questioning the selection of the team since it cannot be changed now.
“Now is not the time for people to be talking about reviewing selectors because you want players to focus on the job at hand and now they would probably start to question themselves when they hear cricket West Indies is asking for a review of the panel that selected them and I don’t think the timing is right.”
The 54-year-old contended, “Whether Guyana likes it or Mia Mottley likes it, the team has already been selected, it is not going to change unless you have injuries or somebody pulls out for whatever reason so what we need to do is throw our support behind them. When they finish and don’t do well or whatever the case might be then we can do the dissection but right now we need them to focus on bringing this home.”
Guyana’s President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, the Guyana Cricket Board and Barbados’ Prime Minister, Mottley have all lambasted the selection of the World Cup squad.
Meanwhile, from his position, Benjamin expects West Indies to start well and move on to the final four where “anything can happen.
“T20 is a very dynamic form of cricket,” he said
“The very important thing is to start well. You want to start well which I hope the West Indies can do and then you want to get into the final four if that is the format now when you get into the final four, that is where the real stuff starts because if you lose then you go home.
I am expecting us to start well, if we don’t, we could come home very well, but if we start well and get into the final four, I think anything can happen,” he stated.
Benjamin added, “It is going to be an uphill battle to defend the title because everyone is gunning for you. There are so many things that have gone against West Indies, the last one was this committee and so the guys will be under some pressure from all around.”