SL Tour Will Be Good CWC Preparation – Gibson

Bridgetown, Barbados – The West Indies team’s upcoming tour of Sri Lanka is being seen as “good preparation” for next month International Cricket Council’s World Cup to be played in Asia. Speaking before the team departed from the Caribbean, Head Coach Ottis Gibson said the three matches in Sri Lanka will give the team a chance to get acclimatized to the conditions, where the 10th Cricket World Cup will also be played.

“It is a good opportunity to put some of the plans in place that we are going to take into the World Cup. When we went for the Test series we did really well as a team and we made progress. We also had a chance to get used to the conditions. Now we are heading back to Sri Lanka for these three One Day Internationals and we will be looking to put in place the plans that we will be taking into the World Cup. The players are fresh out of the Caribbean Twenty20 and all the players are ready for what we have coming up,” Gibson said.

The West Indies played to a 0-0 result in the three-match Test Series last December. The One Day Series was to be played in December but was rescheduled due to bad weather. Gibson said the ultimate goal on tour was to win the World Cup. The Windies have been drawn in Group B alongside South Africa, Netherlands, India, Bangladesh, England and Ireland in the 14 team event.

“I think we have a team that can win the World Cup. We will go there with the expectation of doing very well and putting ourselves in a position that we can reach the semi-finals, which is a very realistic possibility. We would love to win and we will try to win. The aim is to reach the semi finals and put ourselves in a position to capitalise from there,” Gibson said.

“The Cricket World Cup is one of the biggest stages in international sport and we want to make sure we feature during the tournament. We are not listed among the favourites and that could work in our favour,” Gibson concluded.

WINDIES SQUAD: Darren Sammy (captain), Adrian Barath, Carlton Baugh Sulieman Benn, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Shiv Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle, Nikita Miller, Kieron Pollard, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Devon Smith.

Team Management Unit: Ottis Gibson (Head Coach), Richie Richardson (Team Manager), David Williams (Assistant Coach), C.J Clark (Physiotherapist), Hector Martinez Charles (Strength and Conditioning Co-ordinator), Richard Berridge (Video and Statistical Analyst), Philip Spooner (Media Manager), Virgil Browne (Massage Therapist).

TOUR SCHEDULE
West Indies in Sri Lanka
Jan 31 – 1st ODI at SSC, Colombo
Feb 4 – 2nd ODI at SSC, Colombo
Feb 6 – 3rd ODI at SSC, Colombo

West Indies World Cup Warm Up matches
Feb 12 – v Kenya (Colombo)
Feb 16 – v Sri Lanka (Colombo)

West Indies World Cup Group matches
Feb 24 – v South Africa (New Delhi)
Feb 28 – v Netherlands (New Delhi)
Mar 4 – v Bangladesh (Dhaka)
Mar 11 – v Ireland (Mohali)
Mar 17 – v England (Chennai)
Mar 20 – v India (Chennai)