Greenidge: W.I Should be World Cup Favourites

Ranking the West Indies among the favourites to win the forthcoming World Cup in South Africa early next year, team selector Gordon Greenidge said the current team was striking the right balance with openers providing solidity upfront.

"No one should rule out the West Indies which can always bounce back to be world beaters... we have done it in the past and I will not be surprised if we do it again", the veteran opener Greenidge told the UNI news agency in India.

Greenidge, who along with Desmond Haynes formed a formidable opening pair in the late 70s and early 80s, said openers played a key role in the West Indian comeback after being 0-2 down in the test series.

Windies salvaged pride dominating the Kolkata test and registering credible victories in the first two ODIs, thanks primarily to match-winning performance from the two openers.

Riding on a Wavell Hinds 93, Windies won the last-ball thriller at Jamshedpur by 4 wickets while a magnificient 103 by Chris Gayle powered the visitors to take a 2-0 lead.

The star batsman noted that the team needed more experimentation with various combinations. "Rather than winning all matches, the focus should be on experimenting ahead of the World Cup", he added.

Windies will play seven one-dayers against India and three versus Bangladesh - the only outing before the one-month quadrennial extravaganza begins in February.

Playing down the West Indies' test series loss he said the shorter version is a different ball game altogether and the team had the nucleus to deliver.

"The fragile middle order and catching lapses, especially in the two test matches at Chennai and Mumbai, were the weak-links which needed to be addressed", Greenidge pointed out.

With Lara slated to be back in the team for the World Cup, the Windies batting suddenly looks formidable with Ramnaresh Sarwan and Marlon Samuels providing depth to the middle-order graced by the likes of the dependable Shivnaraine Chanderpaul and skipper Carl Hooper.

Dwelling on the dearth of quality fast bowlers since the 90's, Greenidge said, "Slowness of the wickets and lack of a proper support structure has acted as deterrents towards producing fast bowlers in my country".

He cited the lack of proper infrastructure and a shift towards other games as reasons for cricket's declining popularity. "The new generation seems to be averse of games which consume more time... Youngsters, nowadays, prefer to spend time in sports like soccer, baseball and basketball - sports that consume less time giving ample time for leisure", Greenidge noted.

Greenidge signed off on a positive note saying, "This is a passing phase... cricket will continue to catch the imagination of youngsters in the Caribbean".

* Culled from news wire reports.