Cricket West Indies (CWI) Chief Executive Officer, Johnny Grave, is optimistic of the prospects of West Indies defending their title when or if the T20 World Cup is played later this year.
Tentatively set for Australia, the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has put a halt on all international cricket and with no real breakthrough in combating the sickness, the tournament is under threat.
Following Thursday’s ICC CEO’s teleconference, Cricket Australia Chief Executive Kevin Roberts said, “Cricket Australia is working closely with the ICC, the Local Organising Committee and the Australian government so we have a comprehensive understanding of exactly what it will take to be able to play the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 in October in Australia as planned…We are also jointly exploring all other options in relation to staging the event and will take the right decisions at the right time so we can host a wonderful celebration of the sport and keep everyone involved safe and well.”
Nevertheless, Grave explained that there was a lot to be enthusiastic about from a Caribbean point of view, should the tournament go ahead as planned.
“I think our expectations are really high, you know we are the defending champions. I am certainly reflecting on my three years here and if I was sitting here three years ago many of our best players were not available to West Indies Cricket and I sit here now, knowing our selectors led by Roger Harper have all the players from the region available to them from a selection point of view…all the players you know are willing to represent West Indies Cricket, wanting to defend the title,” he said.
Grave, however, was cognizant that there are teams gunning for the title as well but believed in the two-time champions.
“We are excited, clearly everyone wants to win a World Cup and there will be other teams there with equally talented players who will be very well prepared, wanting to win it but I think we can go with real confidence,” Grave stated.
The CEO added, “I think we will continue to be the team no one wants to play in a good way. We are one of those teams everyone knows on our day can beat anyone in the world. We are the most exciting and dynamic team.”
Grave reasoned that the team had the perfect mix of experience and youth.
“I think now we’ve got more blend of experience and youth and in my opinion, aligned leadership in Phil Simmons and Kieron Pollard, you know working under Roger Harper and Jimmy Adams as our Chairman of Cricket so I think our expectations are high.”
But with the current situation, Grave believes that as preparation for the tournament, the five T20 internationals at home and the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) are important.
Grave suggested that it is a selector’s nightmare to pick 15 players to represent the region with the talent pool available.
“I wouldn’t want to be a selector picking the 15 players going to Australia because of what I’ve said earlier and we’ve seen through our emerging players programme and CPL and now we’ve got that window for CPL where all the best players in the region can play and we don’t have international cricket clashing with the CPL and we’ve seen so many young performers and we still got experienced players who are there in 2016 who want to be back in 2020 in Australia,” Grave noted.
The CEO reckoned that the younger players have proven themselves to handle pressure while the senior players bring the experience necessary to make a good blend.
“I am excited at looking at those prospects that were there and lifted the trophy in 2016 and also the young and exciting talents that we’ve seen in the CPL that have the talent and the temperament to perform at the highest level under real pressure and we’ve seen brilliant performances from our younger players in West Indies shirt in places where are really tough to play and I think any real measure of a young player is can you go in front of 80 to 100, 000 people in India and still perform under pressure and we have seen that from our young players,” he said.
