Port of Spain, Trinidad — West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) President Whycliffe “Dave” Cameron said there was a 90 per cent chance that the regional side would not qualify for the 2017 Champions Trophy in England.
Speaking to the local media in Guyana last week, Cameron said “I must say to you that we’re probably 90 per cent sure that we’re not going to make it to the Champions Trophy at this point in time.”
“It’s part and parcel of not performing year in, year out that we’ve found ourselves in this position. All we can say is that all our programmes have to be geared towards making West Indies cricket better. I don’t think if you try to do stop-gap measures by going to the Champions Trophy that serves anything at this point in time,” he added.
The WICB president also noted that the Tri-series involving Zimbabwe and Pakistan was not totally signed off on.
Pakistan are currently above West Indies on the ICC ODI rankings in eighth place and victory in the Tri-series could have potentially given the Caribbean side a boost.
Espncricinfo.com has reported that Pakistan and Zimbabwe have decided to put on hold the limited-overs series that was to be played from August 17 to September 17 in Zimbabwe.
Pakistan moved from ninth place to eighth in the ICC rankings after winning their ODI series against Sri Lanka. With no one-day fixtures scheduled until the cut-off period of September 30 this year for Champions Trophy qualification, the top eight teams will remain unaffected.
West Indies are currently ranked ninth, two points adrift of eighth placed Pakistan and eight adrift of Bangladesh whose recent series wins have moved them into seventh spot.