‘We have as good a chance as anyone’

‘We have as good a chance as anyone’
By Donald Duff
Stabroek News
January 8, 2003

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Despite their brilliant showing in the seventh and final one-day international in India late last year which has sent hopes soaring that the West Indies can once again mount the podium as Kings of one-day cricket, West Indies coach Roger Harper was guarded in his assessment of his team’s chances at the 2003 World Cup in South Africa next month.

“I don’t expect anyone to name the West Indies as favourites, far from it,” he said yesterday. “However, in a World Cup tournament we have as good a chance as any since a one-day competition is all about how well you play on the day,” he added.

“The first round games are not going to be easy. We are going to have to treat every game as a knock-out situation and approach it that way. But we have as good a chance as anyone.”

Harper said the West Indies players will leave shortly to attend the 12-day training camp which he said will be held at the Airport Ground in Antigua.

Harper said he envisaged at the end of the camp that the players would be focused and fully prepared for the upcoming tournament.

“We have another eight days in South Africa after the camp to continue our preparation. It will be an opportunity for us to get acclimatised in every sense of the word,” the West Indies coach said.

Asked how important the camp would be to the West Indies’ performance Harper said...” I think it is very important. The players had a bit of a break and it is important that we hit the ground running.”

Harper said the camp will be the perfect opportunity to “fine-tune all aspects of our game.”

Asked about the composition of the team especially the absence of a front-line spinner harper said he did not want to comment expect to say that the selectors took into consideration the conditions etc. that the team would encounter before arriving at the final 15.

He said he feels the team is a good blend of youth and experience and that the team possesses players who have first hand knowledge of the playing conditions in South African who can be a real asset. (Back to top)

‘We are going to do it whether four years is enough’

- Chris Dehring

By Donald Duff

Chris Dehring, managing director of the West Indies 2007 World Cup INC says the West Indies have no choice but to go ahead with the staging of the 2007 World Cup cricket competition in the available time that remains.

“We are going to do it whether four years is enough,” Dehring said at a press conference last week in response to the question that if it takes seven years for FIFA and IOC host countries to get their facilities in order how could the Caribbean do it in the four years that remain to 2007.

Dehring said the West Indies Cricket Board is committed to hosting the World Cup and it was either they go ahead despite the constraints or back out.

He admitted that the region’s facilities might be unable to host the multitude of cricket followers who are expected to trek to the Caribbean for the four-yearly cricket spectacle pointing out that there are only about 40,000 hotel rooms in the entire English-speaking Caribbean.

That figure Dehring pointed out could not accommodate an England/ India match and their travelling supporters.

But Dehring maintained that not much could be done since the West Indies were only awarded the World Cup in 1998.

Dehring said the scope of the World Cup changed drastically in 1999 when the final at Lords ballooned greater than the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had anticipated.

He pointed out that there were about 15,000 Pakistan supporters in the ground and another 15,000 outside who just could not get tickets to purchase.

Describing the World Cup cricket competition as the second largest single sport behind football, Dehring said the hosting of the event is a tremendous opportunity to kickstart the economies of the Caribbean.

“...Imagine what one billion US dollars can do to the economies of the Caribbean,” he posited, adding... “It will provide foreign exchange influx at a pace never seen before.”

But Dehring maintained that the WICB is on schedule, pointing out that the television and sponsorship rights were only negotiated in 2000.

“I have no doubt the Caribbean can host the World Cup,” he said while pointing out that a brand-new stadium can be built in 12 months.