Hooper: Windies are ready for World Cup qualification challenge

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CMC):

New assistant coach Carl Hooper said he was confident that West Indies were ready for the challenge of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 Qualifier, starting tomorrow in Zimbabwe.

The Caribbean side will enter the tournament in a good frame of mind after they swept hosts United Arab Emirates in three One-day Internationals without several regulars before arriving this past Saturday in the Zimbabwe capital for the tournament.

At full strength for the Qualifier, they brushed aside Scotland and the Emirates in two official warm-up matches during the past week, and Hooper said he was satisfied the players had extracted what they needed from the preparation and were ready.

“What we’ve tried to do is make sure that the guys who are going to be an integral part of our campaign, get a chance to spend some time in the middle,” the former Guyana and West Indies captain said about the two official warm-up matches.

“We’ve had quite a few players coming from the IPL – I believe five or six of the boys – and while they’ve been involved with the IPL, they haven’t played a lot apart from maybe (Nicholas) Pooran, so the important thing was to get them some time in the middle.”

He added, “The games that we’re gonna play here in Zimbabwe, they’re gonna start pretty early in the morning, so we’ve noticed that in the two games, the ball certainly does swing around, so we’ve addressed that.”

GROUP A

West Indies have been drawn in Group A for the qualifier, alongside Nepal, Netherlands, United States, and hosts Zimbabwe.

Shai Hope’s side face the Americans in the opening match tomorrow at the Takashinga Cricket Club, then the Nepalese on Thursday, June 22, at the Harare Sports Club, where they also face the Zimbabweans on Saturday, June 24, and the Dutch on Monday, June 26.

“We’re ready, we’re ready, I mean you know you gotta feel, you gotta vibe for the energy in the team,” Hooper said.

“I think Darren Sammy is a fabulous inspirational leader, and I know that he’s been tasked with trying to get West Indies (through) the qualification, which would be massive for us.”

Hooper said he had started to address a few areas of concern that had hampered the team in the past, chief among them the rotation of the strike, especially in the middle passage of the innings when the slow bowlers are typically in operation and boundaries may be at a premium.

“I suppose the critical area, probably, I mean, it’s no secret that we’ve struggled to rotate the (strike) and playing the spinners has been an issue,” he said. “It’s not anything that the players don’t know, but we’ve tried to address that area.

Each team in the Qualifier will play the other teams in their group once with the top three from the groups progressing to the Super Six stage from Thursday, June 29, to Friday, July 7.

The teams that moved on to the Super Six stage will each play three matches against the sides they did not meet in the group stage.

All points won in the group stage will be carried over to the Super Six stage apart from those gained against the bottom two from each group.

The final between the top two sides after the Super Six stage will be played on Sunday, July 9, at the Harare Sports Club, and the two teams will also progress to the World Cup.