WI open against Bangladesh

LONDON: West Indies are taking nothing for granted today as they prepare to enter the Champions Trophy cricket match against Bangladesh. A washed out match against the same opponents ruined their hopes at last year’s World Cup. This time the forecast is good, but West Indies skipper Brian Lara was in cautious mood on the eve of the match. Bangladesh suffered an emphatic defeat at the hands of South Africa on Sunday and even an unlikely victory might not be enough to prevent an early exit. The Tigers were bowled out for only 93 but Lara drew little comfort from the manner of their nine-wicket defeat. Instead he recalled Bangladesh’s strong showing in the First Test between the two sides in the Caribbean in May, when they forced a draw. “They acquitted themselves very well in that series and I think we are going to be careful how we take them,” said Lara.

“They haven’t played in these conditions for quite some time so maybe they were getting accustomed to it.” Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore agreed with Lara’s comments, saying: “The boys came close a couple of times in the one-dayers (in the Caribbean) and had a good First Test match,” he said. “That’s why he understands Bangladesh can play better than we showed against South Africa —  we’re all pretty upset with that,” Whatmore said. Despite South Africa being beaten in their previous 10 matches they were a lot better than that. “When they got the early wickets it was a very tough match for us.” he said. Whatmore is uncompromising in what he expects from his team against West Indies. “We’re going for a win. We don’t play to make up the  numbers,” he said. “We may falter, we may play some bad cricket for half-an-hour but the objective is to go out there and win,” he said.

Bangladesh will not alter their batting line-up but have yet to decide on a final line-up from a fully fit 14-man squad. West Indies have been forced to change selection policy with several youngsters ruled out of the tournament through injury. Bowlers Jermaine Lawson and Tino Best are suffering back injuries and all-rounder Dwayne Smith shoulder trouble. All-rounders Darren Sammy and Ryan Hinds were both late call-ups to the squad. But veteran seamer Merv Dillon and batsman Wavell Hinds are more likely to play despite missing the mid-summer series in England. “The spirit is very good. We’ve got some experienced guys coming back and they are really going to help in that area,” said Lara. “The expectations are always great. Just a couple of decades ago we were invincible and the people got accustomed to that,” he said. “What they want is to see a bit more fight and that’s what we’re going to try to instil in the guys and hopefully this tournament could serve as another opportunity to do that,” Lara said.

West Indies (from): B Lara (captain), W Hinds, C Gayle, R Sarwan, S Chanderpaul, D Bravo, R Powell, C Browne, C Collymore, M Dillon, I Bradshaw, S Joseph.
Bangladesh (from): R Saleh (captain), J Omar, M Ashraful, F Hossain, A Ahmed,M Rahman, K Mashud (wkt), M Rafique, M Rana, T Baisya, T Aziz, N Iqbal.
Umpires: J Lloyds (Eng) and A Dar (Pak)