ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – Still weakened by the absence of the leading players, West Indies will seek to avenge their Test series loss when they meet Bangladesh in the first of three One-Day Internationals here today.
The match will signal the refurbished Windsor Park’s first-ever international cricket game and more importantly, the country’s debut as hosts of top-tier cricket.
With all that has transpired over the last two weeks, the Windies will hope to christen the stadium with a win over the Tigers who are unbeaten on their tour of the Caribbean to date.
Whipped convincingly in the preceding two-Test series and still playing under a cloud of controversy because of the bitter impasse, a winning start would also be more than precious for the Floyd Reifer-led side.
The veteran Barbadian batsman, entrusted with the task of shepherding a largely inexperienced team on the international stage, said yesterday they would not be influenced by the turbulent recent events.
“Off the field issues [are] not affecting the team at all. The guys are here to play cricket, they know what cricket means to the people of the Caribbean,” Reifer told reporters following a training session here.
“All the past great players [who] played for the West Indies, we know cricket means a lot to them so we are going to go out there to play hard.”
Though still largely inexperienced, the Windies will benefit from a few changes from the Test series.
Veteran Windward Islands all-rounder Rawl Lewis has been recalled along with exciting rookie opener Andre Fletcher and Test batsman Devon Smith.
The 34-year old Lewis has played sporadically for the West Indies since making his international debut 12 years ago and is poised to add to his tally of 26 ODIs.
Fletcher, meanwhile, has only played four one-dayers and played in the recent ICC World Twenty20 Championship in England last month.
Fellow Grenadian Devon Smith has 31 Tests and 26 ODIs under his belt and will bring some measure of experience to the squad’s untested batting.
Reifer said he believed the batting would be the key to the series, which continues here Tuesday and hosts its final match in St Kitts next week Sunday.
“Once we bat well, I’m confident we could win the series. We’re really looking forward to playing good cricket,” the 37-year-old left-hander said.
“We’re willing to go out there and play tough cricket tomorrow. We are still confident because we know the mistakes that we made in the two Test matches.”
Bangladesh will be buoyant following their historic win in the Test series and will be anxiously eyeing a clean sweep of the tour by also winning the ODIs.
They beat the UWI Vice Chancellor’s XI in a one-day match on Friday, and will be confident they can repeat a similar performance against the Windies side.
They are likely to depend on their spin attack, used with telling effect in the Test series, as their key weapon yet again.
Left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan and off-spinner Mahmudullah tormented the regional batsmen in the Test series, taking 25 wickets between them and will once again prove a challenge to navigate.
