Windies head coach Stuart Law praised Pakistan’s security arrangements and believes that cricket should be back in Pakistan. Law also claimed that IPL franchises are ruthless when it comes to player activity.
Windies played three-match T20I series on the Pakistan soil where all the three matches were played at National Stadium, Karachi. The three matches were played on April 1, 2 and 3 where Pakistan won all the matches by huge margins.
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Talking about the security arrangements in the recently concluded T20I series in Pakistan, Law quoted, “The security has been outstanding. We were communicated very well about the issues or incidents that may arise here, but we haven’t seen any of them. It’s a bit daunting if you are not used to the set-up. It’s a bit daunting for the people outside but once you get here and see it for yourself, you feel more confident. I’m not saying that it has open the floodgates and everyone will come rushing back.”
Law feels that the situation is more than enough for returning the cricket in the country. He said, “People will still have reservations but from what I’ve seen here it’s more than adequate that’s for sure to make sure that we can get cricket back in Pakistan. I feel sorry for the Pakistan players who don’t play enough cricket in front of their home fans. Every game for them is away game. So, you feel for those boys who can’t play in front of their families week in and week out.”
After losing the first two games in the T20I series by 143 runs and 82 runs respectively, Windies also received an 8-wicket defeat (with 19 balls to spare) in the third and final match on Tuesday night.
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Windies got very lesser time to prepare for this series as they had arrived in Pakistan just before 24 hours of the first T20I of that series.
When Law was asked whether the team could perform in the better way if they got more preparation time, the 49-years old said, “You never know, we don’t have a crystal ball. But we got better as the tournament went on. The tour was somewhat rushed and the IPL is starting soon. We have a lot of players involved in the IPL and their franchises are pretty ruthless when it comes to player activity. It wasn’t probably ideal timing, but I’m glad for the people here in Karachi. When you look back, yes I’m disappointed with our result, but there’s lot of smiles on faces, and there are lot of people happy out here.”
Talking about team’s uncompetitive performances in all the three T20Is, Law stated, “I thought every time we went out we had more positive attitude towards the game of cricket. We probably lacked desire in the first two games, whether that was jet lag or whatever reason, it’s still no excuse when you play international cricket as you representing your country, your people, your family and yourself. We lacked a bit of desire and energy in the first game, it got better in the second game, tonight it was an improved mark again, but Pakistan are rolling on a tide of wave with a moment of confidence and they are playing very good cricket.”
Law lauded the new Windies players’ performances in this T20I series. He spoke out on that, “The positives we can take are that we brought a very young team here with a little bit of experience. I’m pretty impressed with Keemo Paul, who I thought stood out. He worked for us in Zimbabwe in 50 over cricket. Another debutant tonight Andre McCarthy showed good intent with the bat. Odean Smith was another young quick, who impressed. It’s a difficult task coming here playing in Pakistan. We did lose the series 3-0 we got better as the series went on and that’s a good sign for us.”
