ICC Men's T20 WC26: After Italy Setback, Nepal Coach Stuart Law Urges Team To 'Pull Up Their Socks' Against West Indies

Mumbai: Nepal coach Stuart Law was not in the best mood while facing the media on the eve of their game against the West Indies at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday.

After the stratospheric high of almost pulling off a huge win against England to crashing to a humiliating 10-wicket defeat against Italy few days later, Law is not happy with the team’s trajectory and called for a much-improved performance against the mighty West Indies.

“Well, if we don't do that, we might as well pack our bags now and head home. So, you know, we started the tournament by saying we weren't coming here just to be participants. We wanted to come here and cause a few upsets, ruffle a few feathers. We did that in our first game and, you know, we got our backsides kicked in the second game.

So we need to actually turn up tomorrow and put in a good effort. I'm not focusing on the result tomorrow, I'm just going to focus on the effort. And it's not so much the effort on the ground as well as the effort off the ground,” he added.

Law wanted the side to pull up their socks and control the things they can on the field.

“So the one percenters we need to do better off field. If we can do those one percenters better, then the on-field stuff should take care of itself. In both the games, in batting side, there were some questions about game awareness from the finishers that we expected.”

Law refused to accept that Nepal were not able to handle pressure in crunch situations at the World Cup.

“I thought we were pretty good under pressure against England. We've only played two games. You know, we didn't get over the line, yes, but, you know, you look at that, everyone's looking at the batting, the finishing. In that game against England, we probably leaked, you know, 15 to 20 runs too many in the field. Had we done that, the chase would have been a lot easier,” he added.

Talking specifically about the defeat against Italy, which seemed like an anti-climax after the high of the England game, Law felt it was an aberration hopefully.

“Last game was just a terrible performance and the boys are really, they weren't, well, they're not happy with it and they're looking to make sure they come out tomorrow and put on a better show.”

The Nepal coach, formerly a West Indies coach as well, spoke about the distractions that Nepal’s cricketers faced after the England game especially that of social media.

“I think the way that we've got to look at it now is we've got to work out why the gulf from England game to the Italy game happened. And I think if the Nepalese people in the room here, I think you understand that social media is a massive part of the Nepalese culture.”

Law emphasised on the focus of the team being solely on cricket and not diverting to other aspects like social media.

“To me, social media can be a huge distraction. If we're focusing on what we're doing on social media, if we're focusing on what people are saying about us on social media and not focusing about what the team needs, your teammates are saying and the game requires, you're distracted from your actual job. It's a difficult one because I know a lot of the players, they rely on it to gain endorsements and sponsorship, et cetera.

But I think also at the World Cups, cricket is the main thing. I've tried to explain to them that if we keep winning games of cricket, your likes will go up anyway,” he added.