KINGSTOWN, St Vincent, CMC – Hamstrung by the loss of key players but inspired by their surprise win over Barbados, Windward Islands are confident of grabbing full points from Combined Campuses and Colleges in their 10th round WICB Regional four-day match starting today.
With the Test series over, Windwards would have been hoping on the availability of their stars but opener Devon Smith, all-rounder Darren Sammy and key batsman Andre Fletcher have all been called up for the Twenty20 International against England on Sunday.
It means in addition to being without Smith again, the Windwards also lose their match-winner from the last round in Sammy and their influential top order batsman in Fletcher.
Manager Lockhart Sebastien told CMC Sports that despite these setbacks, however, his side would regroup and look to beat the CCC at Arnos Vale, as they were still buoyant from their narrow win over Barbados on Monday at Kensington Oval.
“We are very confident and we are very happy that we were able to achieve that victory in Barbados and it has really spurred us on because we haven’t won in Barbados for a very, very long time,” Sebastien told CMC Sports Thursday.
“We are short of a couple players – Darren Sammy, Andre Fletcher and Devon Smith are with the West Indies team for this weekend’s Twenty20 – but we still feel a bit confident.
“We are a bit concerned that we have to miss them but the game must go on so we have to play with the players we have. We feel we have good enough stand-bys, not as good as them (Sammy, Fletcher and Smith) obviously. It’s a chance now for some of the younger players to step up.”
Windwards shook up the competition with their last round victory over Barbados, a nerve-wracking one-wicket win on the last day which carried them to 60 points and second in the standings behind leaders Jamaica on 72.
Barbados, who failed to take a single point from their loss to Windwards, have remained on 54 points in third.
