Kieron Pollard and my exclusion from West Indies World Cup squad was big joke: Dwayne Bravo
Former West Indies ODI captain Dwayne Bravo said that he was not surprised by the axe from the 2015 World Cup squad and sounded off on the lack of ambition shown by the West Indies team and management.
Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo, two of the most dangerous limited-overs players in world cricket at present, were given a talk by WICB Chief Selector Clive Lloyd in January, where he tried to explain the duo’s non-exclusion from the World Cup squad.
"We actually laughed when he said it to us. To be honest, we knew it was coming. We know the type of people in charge of our cricket are actually mature enough to make sensible decisions and the right decisions for the benefit of cricket," Bravo said. "If we had got selected we actually would have been surprised. We expected it. There was nothing that shocked us.
"The explanation that they gave us was too many allrounders or they want to try young players, whatever the case might be. Kieron Pollard is 27, I am 31. Also as far as our form was concerned, as I said, the last 12 months I had been West Indies' best player. So to be left out with those explanations, obviously, all we could have done is to laugh. It was a big joke."
Bravo led West Indies' player boycott on their India tour, during which the team abandoned the series mid-way over a contracts dispute involving the WICB and the players. Subsequently, he was axed as ODI captain and dropped from the World Cup squad despite being one of the top performers in the team in the preceding 12 months before the selection – Chris Gayle terming the non-inclusion of Bravo ‘ridiculous’.
Bravo announced his Test retirement in January, despite being only 31 years of age.
West Indies were prepared not to win 2015 World Cup: Bravo
Bravo also held forth on how West Indies had gone into the 2015 World Cup without any desire of winning the tournament, calling such an approach shameful. Senior players who had prepared for three years for the 2015 World Cup were sidelined on the eve of the tournament.
"Another World Cup come, finish. They (were) happy with their decision. They were prepared not to win this World Cup," he said.
"It is a shame that before the World Cup even started, they were already prepared to lose and look forward to building for the next World Cup, whereas in the last three years we were building for this World Cup. But it is all water under the bridge now. I am not someone to hold on to anything."
Bravo finished as the highest wicket-taker in IPL 2015, but the all-rounder maintained that he had no point to prove to anybody.
IPL stars Pollard, Sunil Narine, Lendl Simmons and Andre Russell have been recently invited by coach Phil Simmons to return to the fold of Test cricket, a move which Bravo welcomes – but stays adamant in not considering a return himself.
“There is a lot more that needs to be changed in order for me to even think of coming back into Test cricket. At the moment I am happy with my decision and I don't see it changing anytime soon unless something drastic changes."