ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) — Director of cricket at Cricket West Indies (CWI), Miles Bascombe, has maintained that there were some bright sparks in the regional side’s loss to minnows Nepal in their recently concluded Twenty20 International (T20I) series.

Despite sending a young team, missing several senior players, and boasting six possible debutants, the sixth-ranked West Indies were still expected to comfortably defeat 18th-ranked Nepal in their three-match T20I Unity Cup series last month in the United Arab Emirates.

However, the West Indies lost the first two matches on their way to suffering an embarrassing 1-2 defeat that sent shock waves across the cricketing community.

It also gave Nepal their first-ever win over a full member team in any format.

Speaking during CWI’s quarterly press conference on Wednesday, Bascombe said the T20I series against Nepal was always going to be a challenging one due to the construction of the team and the available timeline.

“The Nepal series had always been earmarked as an opportunity for exposure for emerging talent.

“We always knew that turnaround time would have been a challenge. They pretty much had one day to acclimatise and one practice session going into that series, and in a very short tournament of three matches, if you’re not off the ground running from match one, you can very much find yourself behind the eight ball as we did,” Bascombe said.

“But as I mentioned, the opportunity for exposure has been key. We need more information in terms of filling those positions and shoring up some of those positions that we have in our international T20 team, and while we saw some struggle in those first couple of games, we definitely saw what we all knew in terms of what we saw in the CPL and what we saw in the Breakout League, that we definitely have quality in that group and we have capable players.

“So I think that that series, albeit a very disappointing loss, we were still able to identify some options. We have seen some players that have come all the way from the Breakout League, all the way through to international T20 cricket, and have shown that they may have what it takes to make the step up to the international level.

“So while I wouldn’t want to disarm anyone of that emotional response to a West Indies loss to a minnow, we still need to be able to expose our players and give them that opportunity to shine in challenging conditions. I’m quite confident that we have seen some good signs…” Bascombe further added.