Skipper Powell wants his core group of players to prioritise playing for WI over franchise cricket

North Sound , Their T20 World Cup campaign may be over but West Indies skipper Rovman Powell has hailed the team for bringing “buzz” back to the Caribbean cricket and urged his players to prioritise national duty over the lure of franchise commitments.

The two-time former champions, who suffered the ignominy of early exits in the last two editions of the T20 global showpiece, narrowly missed a semi-final berth this time after losing to South Africa by three wickets in a rain-halted Super 8s fixture here on Sunday.

“There’s a buzz around the region now in playing for West Indies so hopefully that continues, hopefully we continue on the right path,” Powell said in the post-match interaction.

Powell acknowledged the allure and financial incentives of franchise cricket, which make it challenging for the West Indies, a smaller cricket board, to consistently field their best team.

“It’s been good so far for the last year or two. Hopefully guys can always and will mainly choose to play for West Indies.”

“It’s always a case for me as a captain to continue to motivate guys to play for West Indies.

“The driving force of franchise cricket and the money that comes with franchise cricket make it always difficult for a small board like West Indies to field their best team,” he added.

Powell further emphasised on the progress West Indies made in the last 12 months in T20 cricket.

“Not just this tournament but the cricket that we have played over the last 12 months to move from number nine in the world to number three in the ICC ranking is an absolutely amazing jump.

“It’s for us as a team to continue working. It’s for us as a team to stay still close, close-knitted and it’s for us as a team to just keep on building.”

He hoped they can come back stronger in the next edition of the tournament that will be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka in 2026.

“Hopefully guys here can continue playing and doing well in international cricket and franchise cricket… And when that time comes, we’ll have the same core of players trying to win a World Cup for the Caribbean.”

South Africa did well to restrict West Indies to 135 for 8. In reply, the Proteas were 15 for 2 in two overs when rain disrupted proceedings for close to an hour.

But after resumption, the Proteas batters went hammer and tongs to chase down the revised target of 123 in 17 overs with five balls to spare.

Powell admitted that they were 20 runs short on a difficult pitch, which got better after rain interruption.

“As a team we played some good cricket. We play good cricket in patches and tonight our batters were 15-20 run short on a difficult wicket,” he said.

“The inclement weather isn’t something we can control, especially when you’re batting first. So, our plan was to be aggressive… We tried to transfer the pressure as a batting group, but it just didn’t work.

“It wasn’t the easiest off surface but as players we have to adapt and come up with solutions. It needed a little bit more grit a little bit more determination…”

Powell said it became difficult for his spinners to grip the wet ball after rain.

“We knew it was always going to be a little bit difficult with a wet ball especially for us with three spinners but having said that I think the guys, bowling group have to be commended only 130 on the board and I think they really fought for us.”

In hindsight, Powell feels the eight-wicket defeat against England in the Super Eights cost them dearly.

“It was very disappointing for us as players but also it was a wake-up call because we were playing consistently good cricket so it showed us that hey on in T20 cricket anything is possible,” he added.

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