The West Indies’ exit from the Super Eight round of T20 World Cup on Sunday notwithstanding, its captain Rovman Powell declared that his side massively revitalized interest in Caribbean cricket.
The co-hosts had to beat South Africa in Antigua to reach the semi-finals. They lost with three wickets in the game played till rain made it impossible for players to continue.
According to Reuters, he said: “If we look at it as a whole, we didn’t win the World Cup, we’re not in the semifinals but I think that commendable cricket has been played by us for about twelve months or so.”
Referring to the team’s credit, he added: “When you take 1 year for a team to go from Number Nine up to number three in the world it means that they have done some tremendous job.”
There has been no victory at the World Cup but much improvement and great enthusiasm again surrounds West Indies cricket in the Caribbean.
Powell also used social media platforms to thank supporters of the squad as well as huge throngs of noisy fans who turned out for matches involving West Indies all over.
“They’ve been brilliant,” he said. We haven’t heard anything positive about Caribbean cricket. Even now people are rallying behind West Indies.
“Now when we hear our anthem playing it means something as players and I think this is going in the right direction. Credit must be given tonight because they fought hard and throughout last 12 months.”
Powell was convinced that this tournament would change things around for them since their dominance in cricket began fading away since 1970s/80s.
“Now is where the work starts for us still be tight as a group,” He remarked. “And hopefully, just hopefully we can continue climbing up those rankings and making our people of Caribbean proud.”
