Richie backs ODI whitewash
Former West Indies captain Richie Richardson is backing the West Indies to execute a clean sweep of the Digicel One Day Series against Sri Lanka by winning the Third Digicel One Day International at the Beausejour Cricket Ground tomorrow."I believe they will win this match tomorrow and complete the clean sweep and go on to play Australia and do well against them," said Richardson while speaking exclusively to DigicelCricket.com.
The former aggressive right handed batsman from Antigua said he is not at all surprised by the West Indian victories in the first two Digicel ODIs at the Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad and Tobago."I'm not surprised, I'm pleased, I'm very happy for the guys. The team has been going through a rough time and what everybody wants to see is the team doing well so hopefully they can gain in confidence in winning this Digicel ODI Series and then go into the Australia series," reasoned Richardson while taking a break from interacting with fans at the Digicel Scotiabank Cricket Experience in Castries, St Lucia.
He said he spoke to captain Chris Gayle before the Second Digicel Test in Trinidad and Tobago after Sri Lanka had won the First Digicel Test in Guyana and he was pleased with assurances given to him by Gayle.
"Chris Gayle, the captain, assured me before the Second Digicel Test match that they were going to come back and do well and I'm very pleased. I hope he can continue to rally his troops and get the guys to play positively, believe in themselves and play as a team," the 45 year old said.
"There is nothing like having confidence and once you win, you gain confidence, so I believe the guys are feeling good within themselves, they are feeling happy. What I'm hoping is that they do no become too complacent," warned Richardson who featured in 86 Tests and 224 ODIs scoring 5949 and 6248 runs respectively.
He said team unity is a critical ingredient for success.
"It doesn't matter how good you are as individuals, you've got to gel as a team, everybody has got to go out there and do it for each other, everybody has got to understand each other, know what is required of them and they've got to believe in their captain," Richardson said.
"Whatever situation they are in, they have got to always believe that they can do it and do it as a team," Richardson concluded.
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