West Indies Needs More Tournaments Like CPL to Unearth Talent: Kieron Pollard

West Indies have had a disappointing campaign in the 2021 T20 World Cup.

Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo share a light moment. 

Image: ICC

West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard has asked Cricket West Indies (CWI) to start another tournament, other than the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), in order to unearth "new talents" in the wake of another humiliating defeat suffered at the hands of Sri Lanka in the ICC T20 World Cup 'Super 12' round.

Following the embarrassing 20-run defeat on Thursday evening, Kieron Pollard's side, who were the defending champions, have bowed out of the race for a semifinal berth, and there were plenty of questions during the post-match press conference targeting the ageing warhorses in the Caribbean side.

Asked about his position on getting the next generation into the mix for the 2022 T20 World Cup, which will be played in Australia in less than a year's time, Pollard, who himself was plagued by poor form in the tournament, said, "I love that question. I think that's something that has plagued us over a period of time for the last, you know, 10 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 (Caribbean Premier League), where we can unearth new talents," said Pollard.

West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo too will call time on his international career after the ICC T20 World Cup, leaving a big gap to fill in the side. The 38-year-old was integral to the Caribbean side which won two T20 World Cups.

Pollard said that with little or no infusion of new talent, the same players were being "recycled" time and again.

"When we had the Caribbean T20, that was an opportunity for people to bring new talents from different parts 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," added Pollard.

"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."