A young, rejuvenated West Indies team under skipper Brian Lara begin the three- match Cable and Wireless one-day International cricket series against Sri Lanka with back-to-back matches today and tomorrow at the Kensington Oval ground.
Although Sri Lanka won every match in the test and one-day series when the sides last met in Sri Lanka a year and a half ago and the Windies were beaten by Sri Lankan in the World Cup earlier this year, the home team should start as favorites today after their inspiring performance in the final three games of the Australia one-day series.
The expectancy level is sky high as the West Indies aim to increase their three-match winning streak after becoming the first team since early 2002 to record three consecutive wins against Australia and close their seven match one-day series 4-3 after losing the first four games.
Skipper Lara is confident of victory against Sri Lanka despite his team’s poor showing against that side in recent times.
“Our target is to win this series convincingly. When we came up against Australia, the top team in the world in both tests and one-day cricket, we were hoping to be competitive. I think everyone is now expecting us to beat Sri Lanka and we are pretty confident after our recent victories” Lara said yesterday.
The West Indies captain who scored over 600 runs from three tests in a losing cause the last time these two teams met in a test series said that his young players know that there are some match winners in the Sri Lanka side and will stay away from over confidence going into this series.
“We have got to believe in ourselves and once we play to the best of our ability we should emerge victorious. They (Sri Lanka) have got a big spinner in Muttiah Muralitharan and a few other match winners...but they are not as strong Australia,” Lara noted.
Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu feels the series will be competitive as his team goes through a rebuilding period after the World Cup and the retirement of class batsman Aravindra Da Sivla.
“We have been successful on the last few occasions we have played against the West Indies but since the World Cup we have not done too well and looking at how the West Indies played against Australia they seem to be far more competitive than when we played them in Sri Lanka and even in the World Cup. But cricket, especially one day cricket is a funny game and the team which plays better on any day usually wins the game,” Atapattu explained.
While the Windies won the final test and the last three one dayers against Australia to move to sixth position in the latest ICC one-day international rankings among the 11 teams, Sri Lanka failed to reach the final in their last one-day competition (the Tri-Nation series which also involved Zimbabwe and Pakistan) and are only two points ahead of the West Indies who share the sixth spot with India.
Lara said these rankings are important to his team and knowing that if the West Indies wins this series they will climb to the fourth position will be motivation to do well for the millions of fans who rally around the team.
Today’s game will be the first one-day international played by the 1996 World Cup champions in Barbados and the visitors on their second official visit to the West Indies will pin much of their hopes on off spinner Muralitharan, ranked the number one bowler in one-day cricket by the ICC.
Fellow off spinner Kumar Dharmasena, in tandem with ‘Murali’ poised all sorts of problems for the inexperienced Shell Academy batsmen as the tourist crushed the young side in their warm up game in Grenada on Wednesday and along with left-arm pacer Chaminda Vass, could provide the biggest threat to the West Indies hopes of victory.
While the strength of Sri Lanka lies in their bowling their main worry is their inconsistent batting although Sanath Jayasuriya, who quit as skipper after the World Cup, is capable of destroying any bowling attack on his day. Atapattu, at the top of the order and Mahela Jayawardene, Russel Arnold and company in the middle will hope to capitalize on what is anticipated to be a good track for batting.
While the bowling could be considered the weak link, the home team’s batting is very powerful with the battle between Lara and ‘Murali’ expected to pack the Kensington Oval today and tomorrow despite sporting competition this weekend from the Barbados Motor Rally-the international motor racing event.
Apart from the exciting Lara, Wavel Hinds is in peak form following his back to back hundreds against Australia on his way to the Man-of-the Series award despite missing the first two one-day games. Vice Captain Ramnaresh Sarwan continues to be consistent and has jumped to the number two spot among the top ten one-day batsmen while opener Chris Gayle is the other West Indian in the top ten ranking at sixth.
If Jamaicans Ricardo Powell and Marlon Samuels show the type of form that had tongues wagging after scoring breathtaking one-day international centuries in Singapore and India respectively, then the West Indies should easily build winning totals on the small Caribbean grounds, even without the reliable Shivnarine Chanderpaul who is out of the entire Sri Lanka series nursing a broken finger sustained in the final test against Australia in Antigua.
Both teams had their final practice sessions yesterday at the UWI ground and the excitement is fever pitch here in Barbados with tickets for today’s game reportedly sold out.
Up to yesterday afternoon scalpers were prowling around Kensington Oval selling black market tickets, West Indies team posters and ‘Live the passion’ T-shirts originally made for the first 1000 spectators in the Kensington stand and used for promotion by series sponsors Cable and Wireless.
Tickets for the Kensington stand were being sold for almost double the $20 US charged to enter the ground while the T-shirts were going for $5 US.
According to a WICB official, the sponsor is not happy while the re-sale of tickets can be seen as an unlawful interfererence with the contractual rights of the WICB. Anyone found selling black market tickets today could be fined $500 US or face six months in prison. With the weather expected to be sunny today and the Carib girls from Trinidad here for the two games, a scorching weekend of pulsating entertainment is anticipated at the Mecca.
The Umpires for today’s game are Billy Bowden from New Zealand and Dominican Billy Doctrove and the action is scheduled to commence at 9:35 AM.