Even as the ODI World Cup will be played for the first-time ever without two-time winners West Indies as they failed to sucure qualification for the marquee event, the team's star all-rounder Jason Holder believes that all is still not lost for the Men from the Caribbean and the team can bounce back really strong in the 50-over format in the coming time. Notbly, West Indies failed to play top-notch cricket something in the Qualifiers in Zimbabwe and found themselves playin in a must-win game against Scotland on Saturday.
In that do-or-die fixture too, the Windies side did not put up a good show and only managed to post 181. In response, the Scottish side chased down their target with 7 wickets in the kitty. The result meant that West Indies were eliminated from the race to the World Cup. Despite the heart-breaking result, Holder is confident of a strong comeback but has highlighted the need for the entire region to step-up and not one or two individuals.
"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. 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," Holder said in the press conference after the match.
"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,” he added.
"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.