Jason Holder urges shift from territorial mindset after West Indies’ painful World Cup miss | Cricket News – Times of India

Two-time champions West Indies won’t be in India for the ODI World Cup later this year, which is a painful first for the once dominating team from the Caribbean, and all-rounder Jason Holder feels a shift from the territorial mindset is needed to fix all that’s gone wrong.
After a seven-wicket defeat against Scotland in their first match of the ‘Super Six’ stage in the ongoing qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe, the West Indies were eliminated from the competition.
The Windies put up just 181 on the board, and the Scots reached home with six overs to spare.

“It’s (cricket) not an individual thing or a territorial thing. We’ve got to come together as a region… and really, really think about how we we want to go forward as a group and make it happen,” Holder, one of the world’s top all-rounders said during the post-match press conference on Saturday.
The associations of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Trinidad & Tobago and Windward Islands together make up Cricket West Indies.

Holder lamented that the West Indies team couldn’t put it across Scotland to keep their hopes alive.
“We knew what was at stake and we still had a chance to qualify. We had a really good opportunity to play Scotland and beat them (but) we didn’t do that.
“This is probably one of the lowest points I’ve had with the team. But, you know, there are still a lot of positives. I was really happy for Nicholas Pooran, the way he played through this entire competition. And, it’s good to see some of the younger guys get an opportunity on the big stage,” he said.

The all-rounder indicated that work needs to be done from grassroots and up.
“It’s not a quick-fix, it’s something we need to spend time on. As I said, development (at grassroots) is the most important thing, where we can just put things in place and develop our talent. Hopefully, in the next couple of years we can see the fruits of that crop.”
The dwindling performance of the team over the past few years made this exit almost inevitable.

“There have been too many fluctuations between good performances and bad performances (in the last few years) and it’s a matter for us to understand where we are and all of us need to put our hands on the deck to make it (turnaround) happen.”
“We need to look at the levels below (age-group and domestic cricket) as well and try our best to improve them as well. So, when these young guys get here (senior level), they have a good foundation. We all need to put our hands up and be accounted for as individuals.
“We just didn’t play well enough. We haven’t been playing well enough maybe over the past couple of years,” he added.

(With agency inputs)