Optimism replaces despair as WI opens bid for third title

Source: Trinidad Guardian

GEORGE­TOWN - De­spair stem­ming from their failed cam­paigns at the two most re­cent edi­tions of the ICC Twen­ty20 World Cup has giv­en way to op­ti­mism, as an up­beat West In­dies launch their bid for a third ti­tle when they open their cam­paign against min­nows Papua New Guinea in Guyana Sun­day.

West In­dies' 10.30 am as­sign­ment at the Guyana Na­tion­al Sta­di­um is ex­pect­ed to be a straight­for­ward one, es­pe­cial­ly against op­po­si­tion whose on­ly pre­vi­ous ap­pear­ance at a T20 World Cup saw them knocked out af­ter the first round, fail­ing to reach the main draw of the 2021 tour­na­ment in the Gulf States.

For their part, West In­dies will re­mem­ber that World Cup well but for all the wrong rea­sons as it was then their night­mare be­gan. A star-span­gled side man­aged on­ly one win in five out­ings in the group stage, to fin­ish one from bot­tom of their group and miss out on the se­mi-fi­nals.

The Caribbean side fared lit­tle bet­ter the fol­low­ing year Down Un­der, stunned in the qual­i­fy­ing rounds to fin­ish last and fail to qual­i­fy for the group stage for the first time ever.

The shock­waves which re­ver­ber­at­ed through­out the re­gion saw the res­ig­na­tion of then cap­tain Nicholas Pooran and head coach Phil Sim­mons but it set in train the mo­men­tum which West In­dies has since gath­ered.

Un­der new cap­tain Rov­man Pow­ell and new head coach Dar­ren Sam­my - un­der whom West In­dies won the T20 World Cups in 2012 and 2016 - West In­dies have once again be­come a force to be reck­oned with in the short­est for­mat, win­ning all but one of their five se­ries since the start of 2023.

More sig­nif­i­cant­ly, they beat South Africa away and knocked over pow­er­hous­es In­dia and World cham­pi­ons Eng­land at home last year, and have won 11 of their 19 games, cli­max­ing with a ruth­less 3-0 take down of South Africa in Ja­maica last week.

"I think the prepa­ra­tions over the last month or so have been very good," Pow­ell told a me­dia con­fer­ence here Sat­ur­day.

"You know, we take pride in our se­ries lead­ing up to the World Cup be­cause we re­al­ize how im­por­tant it is to have se­ries wins. Com­ing in­to a World Cup where you need those wins to use as ad­di­tion­al con­fi­dence. And I think it has been good.

"You men­tioned the fact that we have Dar­ren Sam­my, our coach, a two-time World Cup win­ner for the West In­dies. That should pro­vide us with ad­di­tion­al re­sources that we need when things get tight, be­cause he has been in the po­si­tion al­ready be­fore.

"Hope­ful­ly his ex­pe­ri­ences, knowl­edge can spread across the group and be very fruit­ful for us in this World Cup."

West In­dies' first T20 World Cup tri­umph came when they beat hosts Sri Lan­ka in a fi­nal in Colom­bo, be­fore fol­low­ing up with a dra­mat­ic last-over vic­to­ry against Eng­land in the fi­nal in Kolkata.

No hosts have ever won the event but Pow­ell said the thought of do­ing so was "very, very spe­cial" and would be a "mas­sive boost" for West In­dies crick­et.

"The pos­si­bil­i­ty of win­ning a third World Cup ti­tle in front of our own peo­ple in the Caribbean is some­thing very, very spe­cial," the Ja­maican said.

"If you should look on it from all per­spec­tives, it's very im­por­tant. For us as play­ers, it's a lega­cy. It's some­thing that af­ter we fin­ish play­ing, we can sit down with our kids or grand­kids or fam­i­ly and just re­play those mem­o­ries of the 2024 World Cup.

"And al­so from a fi­nan­cial stand­point, we know the stan­dard of West In­dies crick­et and it would be a mas­sive boost for us to win the World Cup for West In­dies from a fi­nan­cial stand­point, so that all that mon­ey that comes with win­ning the World Cup can be fil­tered down in­to our youths pro­gram and to help for the ben­e­fit of West In­dies crick­et."

In their soli­tary pre­vi­ous meet­ing with Papua New Guinea, West In­dies beat them by six wick­ets in a 50-over World Cup qual­i­fy­ing game in Harare six years ago, but were made to work hard be­fore get­ting over the line.

How­ev­er, with the home side boast­ing the likes of Pow­ell, Pooran, An­dre Rus­sell and in-form open­er Bran­don King, they will be to eas­i­ly over­pow­er the Pa­cif­ic na­tion who will de­pend large­ly on leg-spin­ner Charles Ami­ni for both runs and wick­ets.

SQUADS:

WEST IN­DIES - Rov­man Pow­ell (cap­tain), Alzarri Joseph, John­son Charles, Ros­ton Chase, Shim­ron Het­my­er, Shai Hope, Obed Mc­Coy, Akeal Ho­sein, Shamar Joseph, Bran­don King, Gu­dakesh Motie, Nicholas Pooran, An­dre Rus­sell, Sher­fane Ruther­ford, Ro­mario Shep­herd

PAPUA NEW GUINEA - As­sadol­lah Vala (cap­tain), Alei Nao, Chad Sop­er, CJ Ami­ni, Hi­la Vare, Hiri Hiri, Jack Gard­ner, John Kariko, Kabua Va­gi Morea, Kipling Dori­ga, Lega Sia­ka, Nor­man Van­ua, Se­ma Kamea, Sese Bau, Tony Ura