West Indies legend Clive Lloyd does not believe discarded batsman Shai Hope should be playing T20 cricket as the sport's shortest format ruins his game.

After a barren run of form, which has led to the player averaging 19.48 since December 2017 and just 14.45 since February 2019, Hope was dropped from the team ahead of the upcoming tour of New Zealand.  Not surprisingly, since his struggles in a 2-1 defeat against England, a place where he made headlines three years ago, saw his overall Test average slip to 26.27.

“I don’t think this T20 is for Shai Hope, he gets into bad habits,” Lloyd told the Mason and Guest radio program.

“I know that you don’t want to take away money from people, but the point is that he should not be playing in T20s, it is destroying his cricket,” he added.

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In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com

I agree with Lloyd's opinion, I also believe that Hope bats too high in the batting order, as basically he act as an opening batsman most of the time, because the WI openers rarely have good partnership.

In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com

rubbish..............hope barely plays any t20 cricket outside of the CPL....he has only played 13 T20I matches and plays for only one t20 franchise in the world, the tridents. Hope's problems are mental and slightly technical He jumps when facing the quicker guys and he never hooks or pulls anything above the waist. Also, gayle mentioned that he searches for himself a lot on google which indicates that he's seeing and reading the bad press. For most players, that is detrimental. It used to work for lara and viv but obviously, it has affected hope in a major way. Unfortunately, for three years while cameron was there, he was undroppable and it was not due to performance. But the break can only do him well. Look what a rest did for Larry Gomes in 1984

In reply to Jumpstart

For many cricket “traditionalists”, T20 is the root of all evil.

In reply to imusic

lolz

In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com

Agree.....a player at developing stage can get tangled with regard to technical issue vis-a-vis three formats of game....each formats requiring different sets of skills.......

In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com

Nonsense! Hope has the ability to produce significant impact in each format of the game. He just needs proper guidance. Not sure what Hope is doing to work on his game but here is what I would recommend to him:

1. Do not rely on WICB or any local board to provide you help...it will never come.

2. Hire a personal coach to work with you. Cause if you can make a significant positive impact on your T20 game, the rewards will more than pay for your coach and then some.

I agree with Clive Lloyd. In fact I will even go further by saying that Kraigg Brathwaite was a very reliable batsman until they picked him to play ODI's and, balls he would normally have left alone, in the shorter version he was going after them. Since then Kraigg has never been the same and I don't even think he's scored a century since. In the case of Shai Hope, although he hasn't played too many T20s but the few he's played messed up his technique.

I think West Indies should have a core of players just for Test cricket like Brathwaite and the likes of Hope, Hetmyer and Bravo should only play test and ODI's. But the board would have to come up with a much better pay package for such players so they could concentrate on the longer version.

While I agree with Clive Lloyd we must also examine the harsh treatment and sometimes even cruel treatment of our selectors. They have destroyed the confidence of too many of our batsmen in particular with their in and out mentality. Hope should have been on tour even if he didn't make the final eleven, as well as Kieran Powell. They dropped Blackwood when he was I believe averaging 40 plus. Kieran Powell, is our best opener yet he is in the wilderness. They dropped Bravo and Hetmyer when I believe they should have worked with them. If you have better players that are knocking fine. But who is knocking on the door?

In reply to imusic

Eent. Big men make their own decision.
Big Cat has no say here.

but cricket is T20.

Lloyd want im to stop playing cricket??

In reply to imusic

T20 cricket or any format doesn't create skills, it test your skills. The format isn't the problem with Hope, it's his skills / technique. He needs to improve his technique and skills ... that's a preparation issue. He needs to focus on that