The Independent Voice of West Indies Cricket
Of late West Indies captain Brian Lara has been repeating ad-nauseam that for the West Indies to succeed in its World Cup bid, his team needs to find more match winners among the ranks. He has been simultaneously cautioning against over reliance on himself and the other big names -- Gayle, Sarwan, Chanderpaul.
Lara's message has been getting through to his teammates but none more so than Marlon Samuels. In the last three games that the West Indies won, Samuels scored 100* (v Pakistan), 98 (v India) and 100 against Kenya on Monday at the Trelawny Multi Purpose Stadium.
TRELAWNY, Jamaica - West Indies captain Brian Lara spoke with the media at the Ritz Carlton hotel on Sunday March 4th ahead of the first warm up game against Kenya.
Lara first welcomed the teams and fans to West Indian shores then responded to questions from the media. Following are excerpts from his comments:
Understandable that there would be conflicting perspectives on the inclusion of teams without Test status in the Cricket World Cup tournament. With 16 participating teams, it has tallied up an unprecedented 51 matches, plus 16 warm-up games. It's a lot of cricket.
The arguments against such a broad span are based on two or three premises. One is the concept that a premier tournament should involve only those at the top so that it is a truly competitive affair.