Noida (Uttar Pradesh) [India], August 23 (ANI): Following a string of poor performances by West Indies across white-ball and red-ball cricket, former WI all-rounder Dwayne Smith expressed dissapointment at the administrators not grooming players at a young age with a desire to play for the Windies and as far as white-ball game is concerned, he urged that players be given a number of games to be played together so that they can gel well as a side.

Smith, a former T20 World Cup winner with WI with 2,462 international runs and 75 wickets under his belt, spoke on the sidelines of the Champions League T10 tennis ball tournament happening in Noida. He represents the team 'Super Sonic' in the competition.

After failing to reach the semifinal of the last T20 World Cup at home and in the USA, WI have won just seven of 26 matches and lost 18. They have won just two bilateral series of eight.

Speaking about how the side could improve their T20I performances, he said to ANI, 'As I said earlier, I think we need to have a team put together and keep them playing for a number of games. Get the nucleus of the team coming together. They need to gel the team together. I don't think that they give players enough games to play. CPL (Caribbean Premier League) is one of the few tournaments we play, providing us with a lot of cricket. Our T20 has been very strong, so I am sure losing some players will have a slight impact on us. But they just need to keep the team together, and I'm sure that they can do that.'

Following the WI's humiliating 0-3 loss to Australia in home Tests recently, including being all out for just 27, the second-lowest total in Test history. Cricket West Indies (CWI) held an emergency meeting recently after the series loss, involving several officials and ex-cricketing greats like Brian Lara, Clive Llyod etc, where the franchise cricket versus nation debate once again surfaced, in the light of Nicholas Pooran retiring from international cricket at the age of just 29 and still being active in franchise leagues.

To this, Smith said that nobody can 'fight the franchise cricket system' and it is upto CWI to get the guys to want to play for WI.

'Franchise cricket is franchise cricket. Everyone who has not played franchise cricket will probably go against it. But it is a new format, and that is what has happened. You cannot fight that. It is already there. It is just for the West Indies to attract players who want to represent them. As I said before, they don't groom them from a young enough age to make them want to play. They are seeing a lot of money given out in the franchise leagues,' said Smith.

'They are going to gravitate towards it. It is all about money at the end of the day, and I am sure those guys know that. We were born in an era where cricket was played a lot. There is plenty of money around in cricket. It is not our fault that we were born at this time. I'm sure these guys should understand that,' he added.

Speaking about the recently-concluded 2-2 draw India's Test tour of England, which saw a young skipper Shubman Gill and his new-look side without legends like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravichandran Ashwin put up a brave fight against England at their home, Smith said that India has a 'lot of talent'.

'I followed it at the most critical times when it came down to the tight part of the test matches. India has a lot of talent, and they have a very good system in place. I am sure whoever replaces the big guys will be just as good. You have new stars born every day in India. It is something that India has put money into and is working on. That is the same thing that WI needs to do,' he added.

Amidst reports on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, two Indian ODI maestros being doubtful for the 2027 ICC Cricket World Cup in South Africa, and if they should continue playing ODIs, Smith said, 'I do not know. You have to ask Virat about that. They would know their bodies better than I do. That is not my thing,' he concluded. (ANI)