Sydney, Feb 17: Former West Indies fast bowler Michael Holding on Monday slammed his country's four-wicket loss to Ireland, who are yet to play in test, in their opening match of the ICC World Cup at Nelson in New Zealand.

Ireland beat West Indies by 4 wickets

Holding, who was called the Whispering Death during his playing days, called the Caribbeans' loss a "little bit pathetic".

The West Indies were reeling at 87 for 5 at one stage before Lendl Simmons (102) and Darren Sammy (89) took them out of trouble and guided them to 304 for 7.

But the West Indian bowlers failed to stop the Irish from achieving the target with four wickets to spare. It is the third time in three World Cups Ireland beat a Test side after chasing over 300 runs.

Holding, who was a member of the World Cup winning side in 1979, said he was surprised to see the Caribbeans thinking that a score of 300 would automatically see them through. He said the West Indies' inability to adjust to the circumstances had hurt them.

Ireland have beaten Pakistan, England and West Indies in WC since 2007

The 61-year-old Jamaican, however, was more kind towards Ireland, saying the International Cricket Council should grant them the Test status so that people do not leave to play for other countries, just as Eoin Morgan had done.

Morgan, who had made his debut for Ireland in one-day cricket in 2006, later joined England to play Test for them. Boyd Rankin is another Irish cricketer who chose to do the same.

Holding said if Ireland continued to play around the "lower regions of world cricket", they would lose good players.

The former cricketer also predicted that Ireland would make the quarter-final from Pool B in this World Cup.

Ireland will take on the UAE, who are playing in their second World Cup, in the next match on February 25 at Brisbane.

West Indies, on the other hand, will play their next match against Pakistan, who lost to India in their first match, at Christchurch on February 21.

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