Nanan picks WI to win 20/20 World Cup

“The West Indies have a good chance of winning the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa” declared former West Indies and Trinidad and Tobago off-spinner, Rangy Nanan.

“We have a good team and the guys played really well in the two Twenty20 matches in England. They played really good and despite losing the second Twenty20 match to England the game was close” said Nanan.

The West Indies team has not been in the best form crashing out of the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies at the Super Eight stage, losing the Npower test series in England 3-0, drawing their Twenty20 matches in England 1-1 and only managing to win the limited overs series 2-1.

Nanan explained that in the limited overs game any team on their day could beat anybody at any given time. He stressed that South Africa and Bangladesh on their day could beat the West Indies since such is the uncertain nature of Twenty/20 cricket.

“Twenty20 cricket is very different because teams cannot recover from a bad spell. This is unlike test cricket where you may have a bad spell but can recover and still win the test match. The way the West Indies played in the Twenty20 matches in England would only give the team confidence ahead of the tournament” said Nanan.

The West Indies team compared to the other nations participating in the Twenty20 World Cup has played very little of the 20 over game. Pakistan, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa and the Indian reserves have been playing in several warm-up matches in South Africa and Kenya in preparation for the tournament.

“The West Indies have not played much Twenty20 cricket with the majority of the players getting their exposure at the Stanford Twenty20 tournament in Antigua. Despite the Stanford tournament being a regional one it should give the players an idea about what Twenty20 cricket is about and show them what is required of them” said Nanan.

Commenting on West Indies captain, Ramnaresh Sarwan’s comments where he stated that he was happy about the West Indies’ underdog tag, Nanan said that once the team itself was confident the players should not be worried about the “tag” given to them by the tournament organisers and pundits.

“It is important for the team gel and pull together. They need to forget about what is being said and have confidence in themselves” said Nanan.

The former West Indies spinner highlighted the importance of Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan to the team.

“Chris is very important because if he gets off the team would do well. He would be able to take advantage of the early field restrictions and put the team in a good position.

Sarwan is back in the team and he should bring a boost to the batting and there is also Devon Smith and Dwayne Smith who can be very dangerous when he gets off.

I was surprised Crandon was not given a chance but this is an international tournament and the selectors must know what they are looking for in the team” said Nanan.

He revealed that his pick to win the tournament was Australia because of the level of cricket they play as well as the quality of players in the squad.

“Australia are clear favourites to win the tournament but it is still very close to pick a winner because of the uncertainty in Twenty20 cricket.

The Aussies are the world champs and South Africa would be amongst the top team because they are playing at home and have that support which could give them an edge” said Nanan. He added that India and England would be in the running to win the tournament alongside the West Indies since the momentum from their series could be carried across into the Twenty20 World Cup.

T&T Newsday