ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2021

November 4, 2021

Kieron Pollard

Sheikh Zayed Stadium

West Indies

Post Match Media Conference

Sri Lanka 189/3 (20) - West Indies 169/8 (20)

Q. Really heartbreaking result. Let's talk about the positives, Nicholas and Shimron; how important is that for West Indies cricket in the future?

KIERON POLLARD: I think that's very, very important. In this case Las getting the opportunity to bat up the order. Last game he was full of confidence and we just decided to ride on that confidence and try something different. I think he gave us a good start to the power play and after the power play. He wasn't able to carry on but that was a positive sign for us in the right direction.

Heymyer, this is what we know Shimron can do. He's one that he comes in, maneuvers the ball at the start and he's a powerful individual, and if we can get these sort of performances from these guys consistently, I think it will bode well for us in the future. But that's just a glimpse. The task is to be able to do that on a consistent basis. The glimpse is good enough and something we definitely look at going forward.

Q. Reflect on this defeat and where it went wrong for the West Indies.

KIERON POLLARD: I think it was a good batting track. If we had sort of restricted them to 170, 175, I thought that was about par on this track,, give them a couple extra runs and we weren't able to finish off the innings. The batting has struggled throughout the entire tournament. It has been disappointing. Obviusly it's something we've seen over and over, and it's something that hasn't helped us, the way that we have batted throughout the tournament, and we just have to accept we weren't good enough.

Q. West Indies almost out of the semifinals. You are defending champions as well. It's heartbreaking for you guys as well. What went wrong with West Indies despite your players are performing in IPL?

KIERON POLLARD: You said we're almost out. I think it's heartbreaking. I think we're out of the semifinals. I think there's no chance we can actually make it going forward. It's something that we have to dissect. A lot of different things might have gone wrong from the start of the tournament, during the tournament.

So we still have another game to play. Sometimes you don't want to sit there and speak only motions as to what just happened. Obviously it was a heartbreaking sort of defeat. Guys are disappointed. I am disappointed myself. So for us, I think we'll have that time where we sit and dissect as to what went wrong. But in the moment, I think we are judging on some points, and hopefully at the end of the campaign when it's finally over, we'll be able to sort of give some information what we think or what we thought might have gone wrong. Having said it as a team, we have been disappointed, and that is the reality of the situation.

Q. Six months ago, Sri Lanka were defeated by the West Indies in the Caribbean but now considering this performance and throughout Sri Lanka's campaign, what have you seen the difference of Sri Lanka while playing today than in six months ago?

KIERON POLLARD: Well, again, that's the game of cricket. They were up for it today and they were the better team on the day. Again, a lot of things happened six months ago, so you can't look back at that and then judge what has happened six months ago in one cricket match.

At the end of the day we all came out to play a cricket match, and they were better team today. They fielded well, they batted well and they bowled well. Kudos to them. You have to give credit where credit is due. I thought they were the better team than us today.

Q. Looking back on reflection, given the conditions, given some of the lack of mobility of some of the elder players -- carrying the age to the World Cup?

KIERON POLLARD: I'm trying to understand the question.

Q. There was a lot of talk prior to the World Cup over the age of a lot of persons on the team. Looking on, a lot of balls could have turned to two, some balls were miss-field. A lot of the didn't put up big performances. On your end, do you still believe that these guys should have gone to the World Cup?

KIERON POLLARD: Again, we can look at all sorts. We can look at age, we can look at mobility, we can look at everything in a negative light or whatever. But my question would have been, you know, what if it didn't happen.

Obviously we have to face the fact that we weren't good enough, so I'm not going to sit here and blame all those factors. As I said just now, we'll have our time where we sit back and have a postmortem as to what actually went wrong. But you know, some of these guys in all honesty have still performed around the world, and yes, as I said, we were disappointed.

But when you look at it at certain times, when these guys are not playing for us, we ask the question as to why. We have an opportunity now. They are playing for us. Okay, they didn't perform, no, this is why we didn't perform. When you make decisions you have to stand by it and you have to stick by it. We had good and bad.

For us, we are not going to harp on that. We made a decision of how we wanted to play T20 cricket this year and what we wanted from the individuals, and it didn't work. These things happen. Sometimes it's better to try and field than fail to try. For us, I keep saying we are disappointed and guys have not performed and guys have not done well and guys have not done justice to their talents and we have not done justice as a West Indies team.

So we take that on the chin and again we move on. We have life and there's a lot of other different things we can think about going forward.

Q. Will we continue to see your personal ambition as captain, or will we see Kieron Pollard going forward as a leader of the West Indies team?

KIERON POLLARD: Personally I don't set personal goals for personal glory. I play cricket to win cricket matches each and every time, and we came to the World Cup win and we have not done that.

Unless you are part of the decision that is going to get rid of me or fire me or retire me, as I stand right now, I have no intentions of not playing international cricket. One tournament or a couple bad games don't make a summer. For me personally, there's a lot of mileage in my legs other than individual. There are people in the front scenarios who make decisions and I can't, when it comes to that question, I can't make that decision.

But again, we have a tendency as things go badly, the easiest thing for us to do is look for things to blame and chop and change and do different things. But we accept that. I accept that. I take it on the chin. You know, sometimes you have to absorb the pressure before you apply, but personally as an individual, I have played a lot of good cricket in the last 18 months or two years or so, so three or four games, not going to lead to Kieron pulling out, I'm sorry.

Q. You mentioned about working on stuff, having conversation with the players and working on stuff. Based on what we have seen, what is really wrong with this team? You said that these guys can do what they -- they know what to do but what is really happening, honestly?

KIERON POLLARD: It hasn't happened. It has not happened, and you have to accept that. As I said before, we play sports, all right. We train hard. We put in the work. We have conversations, all right. But you still have to go out and perform. And we have not been good enough. And it's as simple as that.

As we say in the Caribbean, you can carry the horse to the river but you can't force them to drink. When guys are batting out there, or myself is batting out there, it's myself and my teammates against that white kookaburra, and we have not been able to come out of trouble and we have not been able or we have not been smart enough in the front scenarios, and that's what it is. We have to accept that.

And how do we accept that? We take it, you analyze and you move forward. You move forward with individuals, you move forward different team, you move forward in different aspects. Once you play sport and you have intentions of playing sports, you're going to win, you're going to lose and you just sometimes have to get better and then sometimes you just have to admit that you have not been good enough. We have not hid from that fact.

Q. Were you well-prepared for this tournament in your estimation?

KIERON POLLARD: Yeah, all the guys are playing cricket. We had three series in the Caribbean. Guys went off and they played CPL. Guys went off and they played IPL, so guys were playing cricket. That is not an excuse and I am definitely not going to use that as an excuse, right. When the time for us to put on the maroon and we went on the cricket field, we weren't good enough and it's as simple as that. We can look at all different things. We can sit and we can discuss and we can say whatever. But we have not been good enough and it's as simple as that.

Yes, it's a World Cup. It's a big thing. We are all looking forward to it. We are all looking forward to doing well as a team. Some guys on their last, wanting to do well, want to go win a third championship. But when you plan, there's always that higher being with different plans.

Q. When you see all the countries come to the system of the T20 cricket, the National Anthem is played before their matches are being played. The West Indies, we see the cricket anthem around West Indies. Is it important for the Caribbean region that you have to perform for the entire West Indies, your cricket anthem?

KIERON POLLARD: Again, that's all in the Caribbean, and I don't think the anthem makes you perform. I think as a cricketer, once you decide to play cricket, we come from the Caribbean, every time we step on the cricket field it's to represent the people of the Caribbean and to represent our family lies and to represent ourselves.

The pride and the passion and the joy and the guys that we have is paramount, and yes, I think performances might not show but in terms of that passion, I will not, you know, say that listening to the anthem -- I don't understand what you're asking but I'm saying that every time you step on the cricket field, it's to represent the people of the Caribbean, our family lies and ourselves.

Q. When you enter the field in the in 2010, the Champions League, at that time you were known as a Mr. T20. Now after a decade, how is it captaining the West Indies side?

KIERON POLLARD: Again, all these things come with age and maturity. For me, again, I've just evolved. I try to evolve as a cricketer every time. I try to improve. Try to get better. You have good times. You have bad times but what I can safely say is once you play T20 cricket, you're going to perform but you have to make sure when you are performing, you make it go for a long stretch. That's what I've done.

Sometimes the road is not always straight and it's not always smooth. Take the bumps, take the hills and you come back stronger. Been given a talent by the higher all mighty and I try to execute it every time. Get an opportunity to lead the people of the Caribbean, and you know, again, just try to do it to the best of my ability and accept whatever comes. When things are going good, we smile and we're happy and when things are going bad, you still have to smile and be happy because you still have an opportunity tomorrow to make a difference once you have life.

For me, personally, I think I'm just trying to do justice to what talent I've been given. I might have failed or succeeded at different things. But once I have that strength I'm going to continue.

Q. What was the plan going into the match, and of course why did it seem to go awry from the very beginning? That's the first question. Second question, a lot was made of experience that this team was coming into the World Cup with that experience has failed this team. Can you say why that was?

KIERON POLLARD: What was your first one?

Q. What was the bowling plan? You won the toss with Sri Lanka at the bat, but what was the plan bowling and why did it seem to go awry from the very outset? You seemed to have lost control of the match early, at the second over, you were 14 -- and it kept escalating onward. What was the plan that went wrong with the bowling? And the experience on this team seemed to have failed this team. Well, for the entirety of the World Cup so far, why do you think that was?

KIERON POLLARD: From a bowling perspective, our start, obviously when you make a decision, you will be criticized by it. You can look at all sort of different reasons as to why it went wrong, why it went right or whatever. You made the point at the second over, 14, you're seven runs over with two guys out, nothing is wrong with that.

But then sometimes you must also give credit where credit is due. I thought the Sri Lanka batsmen were fantastic. They maneuvered the field, they hit the gaps and they ran well between wickets. You look at the start, they are 17 fours and three sixes. With that being said, it was minimal risk but still scoring runs.

The bowling plan was spot on. They were just better than us. Throughout the entire tournament, the bowlers has done a fantastic job for us, each and every time we step on the cricket field. It was a better pitch tonight and the batsmen made use of that.

So again, it was 189, you can to the sit there and say there was not a plan. We sat down and we had discussions we came up with different plans. Yes, they scored 189, so well-played to the batters. So with minimal risk, they got maximum runs. So that way I can answer that question and the second one, I think I've touched on that before in terms of total experience would have taken us through and it has not and we have accepted that and there's nothing we can actually do at this present time about it because it's done and dusted.

We have one more game to go in the World Cup, and we are going to come out and we are going to still come out and put a smile on our faces and hopefully try to end this campaign.

Q. You haven't answered why. I'm asking you why, why do you think it didn't work?

KIERON POLLARD: I don't have the answer for you right now. After the last game, which is in two days I'm, we are going to sit and have a postmortem and I'll have a better answer for you. You don't want to sit here and talk on emotions and talk on different things. I don't have a problem answering you but as we sit here right now, I don't think I have all the answers that you are looking for for tomorrow's headline. So I'll get it for you and hopefully we can -- you can put it out and we can end the campaign with a win.

Q. Tough luck today. As captain, what's your position on getting the next generation into the mix into the next World Cup?

KIERON POLLARD: I love that question. I think that's something that has plagued us over a period of time for the last, you know, ten years or so, we have had, again, sort of the same guys playing T20 and sort of dominating as we go along. One of the things for us that we need to do, especially in the Caribbean, is we need to have another tournament other than CPL, where we can unearth new talents.

When we had the Caribbean T20, that was an opportunity for people to bring new talents from different part of the Caribbean and we are able to have a sort of nucleus for this last generation also but with the inception since CPL come in, yes, it's a franchise-base system, but we have only the opportunity to sort of recycle the same players over and over and over again.

So it's something we need to look at but there are some cricketers and a lot of young cricketers looking forward to playing and contributing to the West Indies cricket. It's something for me personally I'm excited about and it's the end of a generation but there's a lot of conversations that need to take place of how you're going to make a transformation from the club cricket, or even CPL into international cricket because there's a big step up.

I think in between there, what we need is another tournament. If you look around the world, there are other teams, and for us I'm looking forward to it and I'm very, very excited. Hopefully we can find the right mix of these young guys coming up and making us step up and hopefully come in and contributing to the success in West Indies cricket.