ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Director of Cricket at Cricket West Indies (CWI), Miles Bascombe, has maintained that there were some bright sparks in the regional side’s loss to minnows Nepal in their recently concluded T20I series.
Despite sending a young team missing several senior players and boasting six possible debutants, the sixth-ranked West Indies were still expected to comfortably defeat the 18th-ranked Nepal in their three-match T20I Unity Cup series last month in the United Arab Emirates.
However, the West Indies lost the first two matches on their way to suffering an embarrassing 2-1 defeat that sent shockwaves across the cricketing community.
It also gave Nepal its first-ever win over a Full Member in any format.
Speaking during CWI’s quarterly press conference on Wednesday, Bascombe said the T20I series against Nepal was always going to be a challenging one due to the team’s construction and the available timeline.
“The Nepal series had always been earmarked as an opportunity for exposure for emerging talent.
“We always knew that turnaround time would have been a challenge. They had pretty much one day to acclimatize and one practice session going into that series. In a very short tournament of three matches, if you’re not off the ground running from match one, you can very much find yourself behind the eight ball as we did,” Bascombe said.
“But as I mentioned, the opportunity for exposure has been key. We need more information to fill those positions and strengthen some of the roles in our international T20 team. While we saw some struggles in those first couple of games, we definitely saw what we all knew, based on what we observed in the CPL and the Breakout League: that we have quality in that group, and capable players.
“So, I think that, although we had a very disappointing loss, we were still able to identify some options. We have seen some players who have progressed all the way from the Breakout League to international T20 cricket, demonstrating that they may have what it takes to make the step up to the global level.
“So, while I wouldn’t want to disarm anyone of that emotional response to a West Indies loss to a minnow, we still need to be able to expose our players and give them that opportunity to shine in challenging conditions. I’m quite confident that we have seen some good signs…” Bascombe further added.
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