The 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup has reached the semi-final stage, with South Africa facing Afghanistan in the first match tonight in Trinidad, while England and India will battle in the other match at the National Stadium at Providence tomorrow night. Conspicuous by their absence are the West Indies, joint co-hosts with the USA, who have certainly missed an excellent opportunity to return to the summit of world cricket in one format of the game.
At the beginning of the tournament, the former two-time champions (2012 and 2016), then fourth in the ICC T20 world team rankings behind India, Australia, and defending champions England, were expected to coast to the final four phase behind the boisterous support of their exuberant fan base. A 3 – 0 sweep of South Africa on the eve of the competition only served to cement the expectations, which were further elevated after an undefeated first round with victories over Papua New Guinea, Uganda, New Zealand and Afghanistan although the former two sides should be considered as second tier. So, what went wrong?
After last Sunday’s narrow loss to the South Africans by three wickets with five balls to spare, under the controversial DLS (Duckworth Lewis Stern) system, in a rain-delayed game, West Indies Captain Rovman Powell, acknowledged his team’s failure at the post-match press conference
“As a batting group, this is one batting performance we’ll try our best to forget. We didn’t bat well in the middle overs especially,” Powell stated, before adding “I think it’s just a case of the wicket not being an easy wicket to bat on, to be honest. It needed a little bit more grit, a little bit more determination than we showed.”
Powell should be complimented for his willingness to accept the team’s shortcomings which are in sharp contrast to the arrogant statements uttered by former captain Kieron Pollard (SN Editorial, Mission Marooned, 10 November, 2021), following the team’s ignominious exit from the last T20 World Cup, which was played in the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
Rankings aside, this tournament has shown that we still have a long way to go to return to the apogee of the cricketing world. Although the standard of fielding has improved substantially, notably the aspect of catching, the lack of penetrative bowling and the inability to dismiss batsmen continues to haunt the West Indies attack. This Achilles heel was once again exposed in the opening match of the Super Eights, where England romped home by eight wickets with 15 balls to spare, a wide margin of defeat in this variant of the game.
Adding salt to the wound, it must be disappointing to see Afghanistan, the surprise of the tournament, in the semi final after inflicting a resounding 104 defeat on their side in the final first round fixture. In a match where the co-hosts set a slew of T20 World Cup records, including the highest Power Play (the first six overs of a team’s innings) of 92, in the history of the T20 World Cup, and the highest score of this year’s competition (214), the lingering question is; did the team peak too early? Were the West Indies over confident entering the second stage of the tournament? Apart from the deficiency in the bowling department, the West Indies appear to be still battling the mental pillar, a problem which had been identified as far back as 2000 by Barbadian sports psychologist Dr Rudi Webster.
“Success in sports is built on four interconnected pillars – fitness, physical skill, tactics and strategy, and mental skills. If any of these pillars is weak, performance will suffer. During the last 15 years this has been a problem with the West Indies cricket team. Although the players have been fit, athletic and talented they still performed poorly because of inadequate strategies and a weak mental pillar,” stated Dr Webster during a lecture in early 2015 in Barbados.
Once again, it’s back to the drawing board to review the team’s performances, to identify their failures and to implement plans to conquer their shortcomings. As we lick our wounds of disappointment at a missed opportunity to become the first team to win three ICC Men’s T20 World Cup titles, let’s tip our hats to Afghanistan, which only became an Associate Member of the ICC in 2013. Rebounding from the West Indian beat down and a 47-run defeat by India in the first round of the Super Eights, the tenth ranked team recovered to score surprise wins over Australia and Bangladesh. Can Afghanistan emulate the 1996 underdogs, the Sri Lankans, who won the ICC Willis World Cup – One Day International – in Pakistan and capture the title? Let’s hope the West Indies are still paying attention. There’s a lot still to learn.
