The T20 World Cup in Australia witnessed an absolute shocker as the West Indies crashed out of the tournament without even getting into the Super 12 stage
"It's a disgrace," Ponting said at the SCG ahead of the opening Super 12s match between Australia and New Zealand here on Saturday. 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."
Ponting also mentioned Hetmyer missing the flight being a major event in all that transpired.
"And even one of their main players 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."
He added by saying that it's a disgrace that they haven't advanced in the tournament.
Also Read: Oh, how the mighty have fallen: The West Indies story
"(Nicholas) Pooran and these guys, they're much better players than what we've seen over the last couple of weeks so no doubt there'll be some soul-searching done when they get back. They'll be as disappointed as anyone, it's easy for me to stand here and say that it's a disgrace that they haven't made it, but they'll be hurting as much as anybody.
"They would have had big thoughts and dreams coming here and they haven't played anywhere near well enough to even progress. So they have got some work to do. I didn't need to see that to make me more worried about the first couple of Test matches," Ponting said.
"But what's interesting with that, they've found a way, mainly at home I guess, in the last few years to be reasonably competitive on the Test front with Brathwaite… and Holder, he's done a really good job in Test cricket for them," Ponting added.
The former Australian captain finished by saying that the team will have to play out their skins to match Australians in the Test matches.
"But they're going to have to find a few lengths if they're going to compete against the Aussies with the current group that the Australians have got. If you just line them up on paper, there's no way you think that they could compete. Cricket's a funny game, but they're going to have to play out of their skins I think to make the first two Tests entertaining."
It is indeed a shocker to not have West Indies in the T20 World Cup. They have always been a team to watch out for in this format, but a few incidents, on and off the field, have resulted in their down-fall. It will be interesting to see how they bounce back from this.
(Inputs PTI)
