BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – West Indies opener Johnson Charles says he is ready for the challenge of helping St Lucia break their drought in the Windward Islands Championship set for Dominica next month.
The right-hander, who has played eight One-Day Internationals and 13 Twenty20 Internationals, will be one of the senior members of the St Lucia team and says he is welcoming the new-found responsibility as a senior player.
“I’m looking forward to representing St Lucia. I’m looking to score big. I’ve developed a hunger,” the 23-year-old said.
“We (St Lucia) have not won the tournament in something like 40 years, so I will be giving a big effort to try and break that. We have a number of good players in our set-up and I know I will be called on to play a senior role.”
He continued: “I have represented West Indies and I’ve had some success so a lot will depend on me. I’m comfortable with that…I believe I can handle the responsibility and do the job for the team when required.”
Charles was one of the stars of West Indies’ T20 World Cup triumph in Sri Lanka last month, scoring an important 84 in a critical match against England in Pallekele.
With that success behind him, Charles says he was continuing to work on improving his overall cricket at the High Performance Centre.
“I enjoyed my experience in Sri Lanka and I was delighted to be in a team that won the World Cup and brought glory to the West Indies,” he related.
“Now, it’s back to the drawing board and working at my game. I have really developed my range of strokes and I have worked really hard at improving my all-round game since I came here into this programme.”
He added: “I think I am doing okay but I still have some work to do against the spinners especially. I have mapped out a plan with the coaches and I’m confident that I can make even greater steps forward.”
Charles smashed a 31-ball, unbeaten 56 on Wednesday night as the HPC beat a Combined Campuses and Colleges Select XI in a one-sided Twenty20 match under lights at 3Ws Oval.
