(Trinidad Express) So disgusted was Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley by the dismal display of the West Indies cricket team, that he took to social media, and held nothing back.
“Today I saw the worst cricket match ever played by a West Indies team” he wrote.
He said: “This amateurish demoralizing embarrassment has to stop. Playing for West Indies requires a desire to fight, to believe, to win. To saunter through to defeat is unacceptable.
Playing for West Indies must be a treasured privilege available only to the best that are prepared to show character in defence of our legacy and our pride.
Those to whom these truths mean nothing must not be allowed out in West Indies colours.”
Rowley was referring to the game between the West Indies and the Netherlands on Monday.
Teja Nidamanuru defied Nicholas Pooran’s hundred with a scintillating one of his own while Man-of-the-Match Logan van Beek produced a fearless all-round effort, as Netherlands stunned West Indies yesterday, in a dramatic super-over to leave the Caribbean side’s World Cup hopes hanging by a string.
Tasked with overhauling 375 after the left-handed Pooran lashed a pulsating 65-ball unbeaten 104, the Netherlands staged a remarkable chase, the 28-year-old Nidamanuru top-scoring with 111 off 76 balls with 11 fours and three sixes, to leave the scores tied in the Group A contest at Takashinga Sports Club.
Van Beek, whose grandfather Sammy Guillen was born in Trinidad and played five Tests for West Indies during the 1950s, then annihilated Jason Holder in the super-over, plundering 30 runs courtesy of three sixes and three fours.
The 32-year-old then returned to bowl the Dutch side’s super-over, limiting West Indies to eight runs from the first three balls before removing Johnson Charles and Romario Shepherd in successive deliveries, to spark celebrations at the venue.
Rowley added “The stench of today’s embarrassment didn’t start today it had a long gestation period in two decades of disappointment so those who were “expecting” should not come looking for any exemption here.”
