West Indies' legendary all-rounder Kieron Pollard is surprised and disappointed with the team's early exit from the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 and said all the stakeholders must share the blame. (More Cricket News)
Two-time champions West Indies failed to qualify for the Super 12 stage o🥂f the T20 showpiece in Australia after suffering defeats to Scotland and ♚Ireland in the first round.
"A bit surprised, to be honest, that (West Indies) weren't able to get over the line against the other teams," Pollard told i95.ꦬ5fm, a Trinidไad-based radio station.
&quo♋t;But agai🤡n, that speaks volumes of where our cricket is at the moment. I feel it. I feel it for the guys because they are the ones that are going to get the bashing. And it's not all their fault."
The elimination attracted r𝄹eactions from across the cricketing w✅orld.
Cricket West Indies presid𝔉ent Ricky Skerritt issued a scathing statement, saying a "post-mortem" would be carried out immediately.
Australian legend Ricky Ponting has called the once-formidable West I🎃ndies' early exit from the tournament a "🎃disgrace".
Pollard said, "We have a young captain, we have young players, guys who w꧂ould have played only a handful of (matches in) T20 cricket and now they are in the World C🃏up.
"And when I look back at it, I sit back and I have a smile on my face. Because I remember some of the things that was said last year around this time, when some individuꦗals were𒊎n't selected.
"I just had to remind these people that t🤪here was a World Cup we were going to (in 2021) and another bilateral series (in New Zealand). And now some of the individuals get the ౠopportunity to play in the World Cup. And, again, look what has happened. It's no fault of theirs," he said.
"But when we tried to sort of protect them and let people understand (in 2021), they were not ready for that, we were lambasted. There were a lot of things that were said that were very derogatory at times.♈ It's a sad day for West Indies cricket and all of us."
