West Indies fail to qualify for 2023 World Cup, Jason Holder calls for togetherness in rebuild

It is the first time the two-time champions have failed to qualify for the 50-over showpiece since its inception in 1975

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West Indies will not be present at the 2023 Cricket World Cup in India this year after failing to progress through the final qualifying event.

It is the first time the two-time champions have failed to qualify for the 50-over showpiece since its inception in 1975. They lifted the World Cup in 1975 and 1979 and have progressed beyond the first round on a further five occasions.

West Indies headed to the qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe after finishing outside the top eight in the Cricket World Cup Super League.

They snuck through to the Super Six, finishing in third position in Group A with two wins and two defeats, before losing to Zimbabwe and tying with the Netherlands to leave their hopes of finishing inside the top two, and thus advancing to the World Cup, hanging by a thread.

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Defeat to Scotland ended West Indies' World Cup ambitions [ICC]

However, a resounding seven-wicket defeat against Scotland on July 1, during which they were bowled out for just 181, confirmed their elimination.

Despite the disappointment, former captain Jason Holder does not believe "all is lost" and called on West Indies to "come together as a region" to rebuild their national side.

"I don't think all is lost. There's a lot of young guys in the group who can definitely develop and turn things around for West Indies cricket," Holder said. "We've got a young crop of players and we've got to put some support around them. It's really important that we try to utilise time outside of competition and put things in place where we can develop our talent.

"We have to look at the levels below and improve them so that when guys get here, they have a good foundation. It's an area we need to pay some special attention to. It's not a quick fix. It's something we need to spend time on. Development is the most important thing. Hopefully in the next couple of years we can see the fruits of that crop.

"We've all got to do it. It's not an individual thing, it's not a territorial thing, we've got to come together as a region and really think about how we want to go forward as a group and make it happen."

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Comments

Posted by David Bowie on 01/07/2023 at 18:44

Once again your public action does Scotland Cricket a disservice . Its all about how poor WI were......how about some praise about how good we were

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