(Reuters) – West Indies great Brian Lara has been named on a three-person panel to review the Caribbeans’ flop at the T20 World Cup in Australia.
The twice champions made their earliest exit since the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007, failing to reach the Super 12 phase after insipid qualifying losses to Ireland and Scotland.
Former West Indies captain Lara is joined on the panel by experienced international coach Mickey Arthur and Justice Patrick Thompson Jr, a High Court judge at the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court who will serve as the panel’s chairman, Cricket West Indies (CWI) said in a statement.
“Emotion-based and knee-jerk type decisions have failed CWI repeatedly in the past,” said CWI President Ricky Skerritt.
“I am confident that this independent World Cup review process will produce findings and learnings that should be of great benefit to our cricket system going forward.”
West Indies were once the benchmark in T20 cricket, winning the 2012 and 2016 World Cups but they have struggled to regenerate with the passing of a golden generation of players.
As defending champions, they crashed out of semi-finals contention early at last year’s World Cup in the United Arab Emirates and their preparations for Australia were chaotic.
Key batsman Shimron Hetmyer was dropped from Nicholas Pooran’s inexperienced squad in the leadup after failing to board a flight with the team.
The West Indies are looking for a new head coach following Phil Simmons’s resignation and have little time to rebuild before they co-host the next T20 World Cup in 2024 with the United States.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
