Ponting slams WI’s ‘disgrace’ elimination

SYDNEY (CMC):

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has slammed West Indies' premature exit from the Twenty20 (T20) World Cup as a "disgrace" and has questioned the players' desire to represent the region at global events.

Speaking before the Super 12 main draw opener between Australia and New Zealand on Saturday, Ponting said the result was damaging for West Indies cricket overall, especially since they are two-time former champions.

"It's a disgrace. It's so bad for their cricket. They've got too much talent in that team and in West Indies cricket not to be able to make it through to the next stage of a World Cup," the Test and ODI legend was quoted as saying.

"And even one of their main players (Shimron Hetmyer) not making it to the flight to get over here for a World Cup ... to me this sort of sums up probably how little these events mean to the West Indies players, and if you look at the way that they played you'd say the same thing.

"(Nicholas) Pooran and these guys, they're much better players than what we've seen over the last couple of week,s so no doubt there'll be some soul-searching done when they get back."