Holder urges West Indies to 'come together as a region' after World Cup setback

Putting strong structures in place for current and future West Indies teams is the only way to stop their downward spiral, according to former captain Jason Holder.

Speaking shortly after West Indies were confirmed as being out of contention for the 2023 50-over World Cup, Holder acknowledged their defeat to Scotland was "probably one of the lowest points I've had with the team," but urged everyone in West Indian cricket to move on quickly.

"I don't think all is lost. There's a lot of young guys in the group who can definitely develop and turn things around for West Indies cricket," Holder said at the post-match press conference. "We've got a young crop of players and we've got to put some support around them. It's really important that we try to utilise time outside of competition and put things in place where we can develop our talent.

"We have to look at the levels below and improve them so that when guys get here, they have a good foundation. It's an area we need to pay some special attention to. It's not a quick fix. It's something we need to spend time on. Development is the most important thing. Hopefully in the next couple of years we can see the fruits of that crop."

Holder's call for more focus on the totality of West Indies cricket comes on the same day CWI announced their new director of cricket Miles Bascombe, who has already identified an "urgent need to improve performances." One of Bascombe's earliest tasks will be to establish High Performance systems throughout the territories under the CWI's ambit. That kind of uniformity is also what Holder wants to see.

"We've all got to do it. It's not an individual thing, it's not a territorial thing, we've got to come together as a region and really think about how we want to go forward as a group and make it happen," he said.

But all those are things that will be addressed in the weeks and months to come, which will include a quiet October-November period when West Indies should have been at the World Cup. For Holder, who played in the 2015 and 2019 events, missing out is a particularly sore point. "It's disappointing, especially after last year's effort in the T20 (World Cup - where West Indies did not make the Super 12s). I've had the luxury of playing in two fifty-over World Cups before and some T20 World Cups. There are special occasions so this one will hurt as the one last year did."

On the field, Holder was among those who showed emotion from around the time that Scotland needed less than 50 runs to win. He stood at mid-on, hands on hips, head bowed and at one point even sank to his haunches and remained there while waiting for the next ball to be bowled. Unlike when West Indies lost at the same venue to Zimbabwe a week ago, there were no last-ball meltdowns and though Akeal Hosein, who was consoled by Craig Ervine and Sean Williams seven days ago, needed an arm around his shoulder as he trudged off, there were no tears.

Those may have come in the morning when, put in to bat, West Indies were 81 for 6 in the 21st over and the only team with India on their minds seemed to be the Scottish. "We knew what was at stake and that we still had a chance to qualify. We had a really good opportunity today to play against Scotland, and beat Scotland and we didn't do that," Holder said.

So when the inevitable happened, West Indies were gracious losers, congratulated the Scotland players and those of them who had been on the bench started to run shuttles. Pointless? Not quite. They still have to play Oman and Sri Lanka before racing home to begin a series against India. As is the case with cricket schedules these days, there's no time to dwell on this defeat, however significant it may be.

"But there's no point moping on and keeping our heads down. We have to find ways to get better and head in the direction we need to head in consistently. There have been too many fluctuations between good performances and bad performances. It's a matter for us to understand where we are at, know where we want to go and all of us putting our hands up."