WITH the World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya only months away, many international teams, including our West Indies team, will be preparing themselves to play competitively and most of all to win.
This year's Red Stripe Bowl, the West Indies limited-overs championship, provides our players with a chance to get in gear, impress the new Selection Committee, under Sir Vivian Richards, and stake their claim for a place in the West Indies team that will appear in the Cup.
Our results in a few recent limited-overs competitions has given us hope that the right team with the right attitude can be competitive enough and make waves in the World Cup and hopefully win. But the Red Stripe Bowl is where it all begins.
This is another nursery of West Indies cricket. It's another avenue by which our cricketers can break into the regional side on their way to international stardom.
It's also a chance for us in the West Indies to welcome a few of our partners from the Americas region of the International Cricket Council. It affords them an outlet to play some meaningful matches that will help to develop the cricket in their countries. Limited-overs international cricket has been looked upon as a distant cousin of Test cricket. Many people believe that it can get players into bad habits and, in some cases, it just might.
But many of the teams around the world have taken advantage of the benefits of this form of the game to improve their play in the longer version.
It has helped batsmen to appreciate the value of the simpler things like running between the wickets. Bowlers have learnt how to bowl a tighter line and length. And fielders have learnt that they need to be much fitter and more athletic in their out-cricket.
So our players should use the Red Stripe Bowl as an opportunity to hone their game ahead of the International Cricket Council's Champions' Trophy in Sri Lanka, limited-overs series against India and Bangladesh, as well as next year's World Cup. The Red Stripe Bowl will be a very critical cog in the wheel to better performances and a chance to make it on the international stage. In the coming months, our West Indies team will get a chance to play quite a few more limited-overs matches on the road to South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya, so the players should not allow complacency to set in.
The players must see the bigger picture and the bigger prize and that is the World Cup. We have not won the competition since 1979 and have not reached the final since India toppled us about 20 years ago. These facts should provide them with the impetus to spur their performances. We urge the sides in the Red Stripe Bowl to play hard, play fair, and make the competition the best that it can be.