The West Indies team must change their attitude if they want to win the ICC Cricket World Cup. So says former fast bowler and legend Michael Holding as the team braved some chilly weather here ahead of their quarterfinal clash with New Zealand at the Westpac Stadium Friday night (T&T time).
The match has already been sold out with a crowd of 34,500 strong Kiwis and Holding believes that the West Indies can win but after seeing them this tournament there is one major problem they must fix.
“Attitude! I would love to see an improvement in that regard. As I said they have a responsibility to the people in the Caribbean and I’ll repeat — if you don’t enjoy working for your employers, move on! Find a new employer. There are other options open today.
“West Indies Cricket Board is not the only employer available but there are also repercussions for that. West Indies Cricket Board needs to think about that. A lot of these guys are using the WICB to make a name for themselves and move on because they’re not happy. Make them happy,” said Holding who is working here as an analyst for ESPN.
Commentators and observes thought the West Indies looked rather flat in their efforts during the last match against the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who pulled themselves around to set the regional side a victory target of 175 after being 46/6. It’s a position that no doubt the unbeaten New Zealanders would take advantage of if they are in a similar situation, which Holding has warned.
“(Against the UAE) they got four early wickets, had them 46/6, which was a fantastic position, and then when Javed and Aziz had that partnership going they sort of lost interest. They were just waiting on things to just happen instead of going out there and making them happen. I’m not too sure they learnt too much from this game.”
Even the level-headed Darren Sammy was seen in an exchange with captain Jason Holder during the 32nd over of the UAE’s innings that prompted on air analyst Russell Arnold and Sean Pollock to say: “oh, no, this doesn’t look good.”
After the match, Holder directly spoke about the incident and said “it was just a little banter.”
“It probably didn’t look the way it seemed, but we just had a little banter,” said Holder. “We are all good. Darren and I are very good mates. We just had a little tussle there and that’s that. It was in the heat of the moment, it was a crucial game but we shook hands at the end of the day and we still smiled together,” explained the 23-year-old captain.
Sammy concurred with this by saying that Holder continues to have the full support of the team and he believes he is blossoming beautifully into a very mature captain.
The West Indies first, full practice session will take place this afternoon with all members expected to be fully fit for Saturday’s match.
