Clive Lloyd defends West Indies team
…“they are under a lot of pressure”
Kaieteur News
April 4, 2007
The West Indian cricket team has disappointed its fans but manager Clive Lloyd says that there is a lot of pressure on the team. He said that when he travels to Grenada today he hopes to motivate the team by having the members recognise the pride of representing West Indies at cricket.
Lloyd stated that “they can play much better than they have done… They played in India and advanced to the finals, something that no one expected them to do.”
The West Indies captain, Brian Lara, commenting on the team's recent adversities in the last three games which they lost, said that people expected them to do what no other team has ever done, and that is win a Cricket World Cup at home.”
Lloyd added that “the team is generally young and inexperienced, that they are learning on the job. “We have a lot of young and inexperienced players, who have not been exposed to much international cricket.”
The West Indians have been allotted nine days off from the competition before their next match where they will face South Africa in Grenada. The team must win their remaining three matches in order to advance to the semi-final round of the tournament.
Clive Lloyd said that he intends to guide the squad through the remaining matches. He added, “Sri Lanka was obviously more prepared and therefore applied themselves more in the last match.” Sri Lanka beat West Indies by their worst margin, 115 runs.