As a West Indies commentator, who along with the late Tony Cozier covered West Indies winning the 1975 and 1979 World Cups, not qualifying for the next World Cup is a deep disappointment. Yet, in my heart of hearts like most West Indians, I did not expect the team to get to India for the October-November 2023 event.

There is merit in the current criticism simply because the West Indies were inferior to other teams at the qualifiers in Zimbabwe, across several games. But I would go back to the blunder made by the selectors in 2021. Instead of looking to youth for the T20 World Cup, they picked a side that we called Dad’s Army here. There was Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and even Ravi Rampaul. A practical selection would have been to pick a side that would serve the West Indies better in the next World tournaments. In Zimbabwe, we needed to beat Zimbabwe for us to go forward, but did not expect to be beaten by the Netherlands and Scotland.