ESPN analyst Holding shares thoughts on West Indies’ W’Cup form
On the West Indies’ recent batting:
A lot of batting and no thinking — that’s the first thing I would say. A lot of strokeplay that we saw there (against India) was just reckless, irresponsible cricket. (They’re) not using their brains, not thinking about the cricket — all that they are doing is playing cricket. I sent Bish (ex- WI international, Ian Bishop) a message. I said, “Bish, the problem that we are having is that too many of our cricketers are playing cricket and not thinking cricket.” I won’t tell you what Bish said back (laughs) because he was exasperated. He just could not understand what was going on. I don’t think anybody could be happy about the way that some of the batsmen threw their wickets away.
On Chris Gayle’s recent performances:
I said it from the beginning that I thought Chris Gayle has lost his discipline in regards to 50-over cricket. He goes out there, as we have seen, and sometimes just throws his bat at the ball, loses his composure at times – just swinging! But he is not the only one!
On the T20 influence on West Indies:
The figures again show that a lot of the guys who have been very successful in the T20s are not as successful in the 50-over game and we are seeing the reason. Lack of commitment, lack of thinking, and just going out and playing instead of thinking about what they are actually doing. I think a lot of our cricketers have got too comfortable playing T20 (cricket) and not showing the commitment to play the longer form of the game. And we see people being selected from their T20 statistics as well because if you look at their 50-over statistics, they don’t deserve to be in the game.
On Dwayne Bravo’s absence:
We hear a different argument from the selectors. We hear people being dropped because they (selectors) say, “Oh they are doing nothing in 50-over cricket, all they do is T20s.” But there is a fellow called Bravo, is it Dwayne Bravo? He got over 400 runs and 20 wickets in ODIs in 2014 — the only cricketer in all the world, not just West Indies. Maybe there is another reason for him not being in the team. Don’t tell me that the team was selected on merit. When you tell me that you lose all credibility. Sorry!
