HOBART, Australia – Ottis Gibson, one of the architects of West Indies’ Twenty20 World Cup in 2012, believes the Caribbean side may require a rethink of strategy in order to find success again in the shortest format.
West Indies beat Sri Lanka in the 2012 final and returned to edge England in the 2016 final in a dramatic finish, but have since fallen down the pecking order and are ranked number seven in the International Cricket Council charts.
In last year’s edition, West Indies lost four of five first round matches to miss out on the semi-finals and automatic qualification for this year’s tournament.
“I think what they did in recent World Cups can be done again,” said Gibson, the current head coach of Yorkshire County in England.
“West Indies needed personnel changes – which have obviously happened – but then perhaps the strategy also needs to change.
“They need to look at whether they are getting the best out of the players they have, because in people like Nicholas Pooran and Jason Holder, we have world-class players.”
He continued: “I feel like West Indies is at that stage at the moment where they need to relook the strategy that they’re using with the personnel that they have right now.
“I still feel like they have fantastic T20 players who can be world-class. And when it comes to T20 World Cups, you can never discount West Indies – I don’t believe so.”
West Indies have travelled to this year’s T20 World Cup with a relatively inexperienced unit, leaving behind the likes of superstars Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Shimron Hetmyer.
The move by selectors was a departure from the 2021 policy which saw emphasis placed on senior players, the likes of Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Ravi Rampaul all included in the squad at the expense of younger, in-form players. (CMC)
