CATEGORY:SPORTS(CRICKET)
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By Trevor Thwaites
Inside Grenada correspondent
Thursday November 09,2006


WEST INDIES cricket captain, Brain Lara, believes that the team will be very competitive in the World Cup on home soil. This sentiment was shared by Lara after his team reached the finals of the ICC Champions Trophy in India.

Although West Indies gave a disappointing display in the finals of the tournament and lost to Australia by eight wickets, Lara told reporters that there are encouraging signs. “We just have to work on crossing the final hurdle. It will definitely give us the impetus we need for such a major tournament”, he said.

West Indies is ranked number eight in world cricket at the moment and Lara says that the low rankings is not a true indication of what the team is capable of producing. “Our ranking hasn’t been great, but the fact that we were in the final of the Champions Trophy, shows that we have a very good chance.”
Despite winning the last competition two years ago in England, the West Indies had to qualify for the 2006 event.

The West Indian outfit played well to beat Australia and India in the preliminaries of the competition and South Africa in the semi-finals. “The guys have started to believe in themselves a lot more.” He paid tribute to the coaching staff. “With former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd joining us in this tournament, the coaching staff was excellent”, he said. Opening batsman Chris Gayle was named player of the tournament, after scoring 474 runs in eight matches.

Lara paid tribute to the outstanding players of the tournament – Chris Gayle and Jerome Taylor. “Gayle was amazing. The three centuries was great and he set up a lot of the victories. Taylor got the most wickets for us and he played an important part. As a team we really worked hard to get to this position”, the West Indies captain said. The team now heads to Pakistan for a three-match test series and a one-day series of five matches, starting later in the month.