West Indies captain, Kieron Pollard, has issued a plea for the Caribbean fans to rally around the West Indies as they prepare for their T20 World Cup title defence.
The skipper made this appeal during a press conference yesterday where he stated, “My message to the Caribbean supporters is simple, come and support the West Indies team. A lot of guys are looking forward to this World Cup. We haven’t played a T20 World Cup since 2016 and we are the defending champions.”
Pollard’s men were out of quarantine yesterday and had their first training session ahead of the tournament that gets underway in four days’ time.
According to Pollard, “I think we have a very good team in terms of experience and a couple young guys who are looking forward to making a name in T20 cricket.”
Pollard namedropped a few up-and-coming players including Roston Chase who finished an impressive all-round run in the Caribbean Premier League where he chalked up 446 runs and 10 wickets to earn himself a player of the tournament award.
“Chase did pretty well in CPL and he gets the opportunity now, young Hayden Walsh getting the opportunity to play a World Cup and then you have the [Nicholas] Poorans and [Shimron] Hetmyers who are the future of West Indies cricket and looking to perform so rally behind us, that’s the most we can ask as cricketers,” he added.
The all-rounder expressed his trust in the squad selected and said that they will be giving it their all when it comes to the World Cup and will do all in their power to bring the title home for a third time.
He said, “We know we are going to give 100 percent and we, just like everybody else, have sacrificed a lot, given a lot to be in this position and when we go out there we are going to play for personal pride.
“So if you believe that is what we are going to do, we welcome the support, if not welcome whatever you have for us but when we put on that jersey we are going to represent the millions of people around the Caribbean and try to do justice and do well and bring back that trophy to the Caribbean.”
The squad for the West Indies team is Kieron Pollard (Captain), Nicholas Pooran, Fabian Allen, Dwayne Bravo, Roston Chase, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Evin Lewis, Obed McCoy, Lendl Simmons, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Oshane Thomas, and Hayden Walsh Jr. Former West Indies captain Jason Holder, Darren Bravo, Sheldon Cottrell, Jason Holder and Akeal Hosein are the reserves.
