'It's just to get it right' - Hinds, Logie optimistic Jamaica can win CT20

Jermaine Lannaman, Gleaner Writer

Head coach Gus Logie and captain Wavell Hinds are confident of Jamaica's title aspirations ahead of next week's start of the second staging of the West Indies Cricket Board-organised Caribbean Twenty20 (CT20) Tournament.

Hinds says, given the work that the team has put in, they should go all the way and win.

"We had a very fruitful preparation and did everything we felt was necessary and required for us to win the tournament," said Hinds.

"There are a lot of experienced players in the team, most of whom would have played with either the West Indies, West Indies A, Jamaica or with clubs overseas in club competitions.

"We therefore have the players who can rise to the occasion, it's just for us to get it right on the night," the skipper pointed out.

Responding to claims by critics that the team lacks the experience and requisite ability to beat their regional counterparts' Twenty20s, Logie said no country in the region is heads and shoulders over anybody else in Twenty20 and, should Jamaica play together as team, they have an equal chance of winning.

"Which team in the tournament has gotten used to Twenty20? Trinidad and Tobago maybe, but did they win the tournament last year? No," said Logie in a confident tone at Sabina Park, shortly before the team's departure for the tournament, which bowls off on Monday.

Logie continued: "Guyana won, but did they win a game during the Twenty20 Champions League in South Africa? No. "It's just three Twenty20 tournaments that have been played in the region and everyone is still getting used to the format.

"I trust in the players and their ability and, once we play as a team, we should get the results we are looking for," he added.

Jamaica, who will open their account on the opening day against reigning champions Guyana in the second game of a double-header at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground in Antigua, was last year considered a favourite for the tournament.

However, backed by slow and inept batting, especially in the knockout rounds, they could only manage fourth place.

Back then, it was the general feeling that in addition to the Jamaica team lacking enough players who had a very high strike rate - which is paramount in Twenty20 cricket - the team was yet to catch on to the quick pace and demands of Twenty20s.

In a bid to address the team's failures, the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) then brought in Logie, who successfully coached the regional side to ICC Youth World Cup glory in 2000, and the senior Windies team to ICC Champions League success in 2007.

Jamaica, which also made it to the final and semi-final of the now-defunct Stanford Twenty/20 tournament in 2006 and 2008, respectively, have been drawn in Group A of the tournament alongside Guyana, England's domestic Twenty20 runners-up Somerset, the Windward Islands and the Combined Campuses and Colleges.

The top two will advance to the semi-finals, which, along with the final, will be played in Barbados.

SQUAD: Wavell Hinds (captain), Danza Hyatt, Xavier Marshall, Marlon Samuels, Shawn Findlay, Horace Miller, Carlton Baugh, Odean Brown, Nikita Miller, Sheldon Cotterel, Jerome Taylor, David Bernard Jr, Krishar Santokie, André Russell.