“Obviously, we don’t know what the future holds but we will take it day by day,” Pooran said on the sidelines of the Super50 Cup, West Indies’ regional one-day tournament, where he is set to lead Trinidad & Tobago. “Again, it was a learning experience for all of us and this is our journey and our story. Time will tell what will happen but for now it is just about focusing on ourselves and how we can get better as individuals.
“Rest is the ultimate [way to heal] and every player needs that but inside it is still hurting as well. I want to use that hurt as motivation and obviously come back strong.”
“It is not going to stop me. I am going to continue to learn from my experiences and again I am happy I can wake up in the morning and see that I have an opportunity to play cricket again.”
Need honest soul-searching to come up with the answers – Johnny Grave
Johnny Grave, CWI’s chief executive, has declared that he won’t step down from his role following West Indies’ T20 World Cup debacle.
“I’m not in control of that. My contract runs out June 2023. But am I a quitter? Am I going to resign? No, I’m not,” Grave said on the Mason and Guest radio show.
He said that West Indies need “honest soul searching” from the players as well as the management. “For whatever reason we did not execute under the pressure in Hobart,” Grave said. “Now, was there too much pressure placed on the team? Why did the players not execute those skills?
“There are things in West Indies cricket, that are not world class and not even eighth in the world. We are way below that in some of the elements of our cricket system.”
Johnny Grave, CWI chief executive
“There are things in West Indies cricket, that are not world class and not even eighth in the world. We are way below that in some of the elements of our cricket system. Some of them [include] execution under pressure, winning key moments in games. More often than not we seem to be second in those situations. And that’s why we have got to think very hard about how we construct this independent review – while I’m saying independent review, that would be my preference. It can’t just be players or coaches. It’s got to be people who understand and have been successful in both setting strategies and structures, and also players who have executed them. We’ve got get the information from our players and dig deep.”
“Our 2016 winning side, the players that I spoke to coming out of 2021 genuinely were shocked at the fact they weren’t able to win and do well,” Grave said. “But we’ve got to be able to ask the right questions, get the answers, and then analyse them properly and come up with some really clear, short term, medium term and long term [recommendations].
“We’ve got to get some quick wins and some quick fixes because West Indies is hurting, and they want results, and they want them fast. And if we don’t get them, then we probably won’t have time or the opportunity to implement the long-term objectives because we’ll all be given our marching orders. And it will be up to someone else to take on this enormous challenge and enormous responsibility.
“I didn’t come into this role, and I don’t think anyone comes into West Indies cricket, thinking it’s going to be easy, thinking there are magic wands. I don’t think Desmond Haynes (chief selector) thought that he was suddenly going to be picking teams and they’re going to be winning across all formats. Certainly, I didn’t think that we were going to come and it will be a bed of roses, but we’ve got to work collaboratively. We’ve got to find answers to these tough questions and we’ve got to get on with our jobs of improving West Indies cricket.”
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo