Legendary former West Indies captain Sir Vivian Richards says the Caribbean side will need to improve their batting if they are to compete at next year’s World Cup in England and Wales.
The 66-year-old, considered the most feared batsman of his generation, said West Indies had gotten away with totals during the recently staged ICC World Cup qualifiers which would definitely be punished by the bigger teams.
“There were a few matches that I believe that they came up short in terms of runs,” Sir Viv was quoted as saying.
West Indies coasted into the all-important Super Six second stage of the qualifiers in Zimbabwe without a loss but then suffered two batting lapses to almost squander their World Cup chances.“But at the end of the day they had the bowlers to defend whatever they scored, but in the big league they will need to score more runs.”
In the opening game, they suffered a three-wicket defeat to Afghanistan after being restricted to 197 off their 50 overs, and in a must-win contest against Scotland, laboured to 198 all out before eking out a five-run victory under DLS following rain.
The fortuitous result earned the Windies their place in the World Cup, an achievement Sir Viv said was important based on the Caribbean’s history.
“I won’t say I am relieved because I felt that they had a strong enough team in order for them to win and qualify,” he said.
“West Indies have a World Cup pedigree and that makes all of us proud in the Caribbean.”
He added: “It would have been a huge loss had we not qualified. It would have been like Manchester United or Liverpool not being in football’s Champions League.”
Sir Viv was a member of the Clive Lloyd-led Windies team which won the inaugural 50-overs World Cup in England in 1975 but is best remembered for his sparkling 138 in the second tournament four years later as the Caribbean side successfully defended their title.
He was captain of the side which lost the 1983 final to India, also in London.
Advertise with the mоѕt vіѕіtеd nеwѕ ѕіtе іn Antigua!
We offer fully customizable and flexible digital marketing packages.
Contact us at [email protected]
At ANR: Viv was not captain in the 83 world cup. Viv only captained one world cup, that was the 1987 in India. The Bajan trio of Garner, Marshall and Greenidge did not play. Garner announced his retirement 87 a little before the world cup and the other 2 decided they were not going. They of course played for West Indies after the world cup, with Marshall playing in the 92 world cup. Holding had retire earlier and Andy Roberts was sacked after the 83 – 84 tour of India.
I am glad Viv spoke about the sub par batting as oppose to lack of commitment that others love to talk about. Because lack of commitment (one way or the other) is not new in west Indies cricket.
Comments are closed.