HARARE, Zimbabwe, CMC – New assistant coach Carl Hooper said he is confident that West Indies will be ready for the challenge of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 Qualifier, starting tomorrow in Zimbabwe.
The Caribbean side will enter the tournament in a good frame of mind after they swept hosts United Arab Emirates in three One-day Internationals without several regulars before arriving yesterday in the Zimbabwe capital for the tournament.
At full strength for the Qualifier, they brushed aside Scotland and the Emiratis in two official warm-up matches during the past week, and Hooper said he was satisfied the players had extracted what they needed from the preparation and were ready.
“What we’ve tried to do is make sure that the guys who are going to be an integral part of our campaign get a chance to spend some time in the middle,” the former Guyana and West Indies captain said about the two official warm-up matches.
“We’ve had quite a few players coming from the IPL – I believe five or six of the boys – and while they’ve been involved with the IPL, they haven’t played a lot apart from maybe (Nicholas) Pooran, so the important thing was to get them some time in the middle.”
He added: “The games that we’re gonna play here in Zimbabwe, they’re gonna start pretty early in the morning, so we’ve noticed that in the two games, the ball certainly does swing around, so we’ve addressed that.
“We would have had several conversations, so you know there’s not much you can do technically, but you certainly can, I suppose, raise the awareness of conditions and how we might approach them to get the best out of the batting group.”
West Indies have been drawn in Group A for the Qualifier, alongside Nepal, Netherlands, United States, and hosts Zimbabwe.
Shai Hope’s side face the Americans in the opening match tomorrow at the Takashinga Cricket Club, then the Nepalese on June 22, at the Harare Sports Club, where they also face the Zimbabweans on June 24, and the Dutch on June 26.
“We’re ready, we’re ready, I mean you know you gotta feel, you gotta vibe for the energy in the team,” Hooper said.
“I think Darren Sammy is a fabulous inspirational leader, and I know that he’s been tasked with trying to get West Indies (through) the qualification, which would be massive for us.
“The energy so far in Dubai and then with the other boys joining us in Zimbabwe has been great, and we are looking forward to the game on Sunday, and I’m sure we’ll do well.”
Hooper said he had started to address a few areas of concern that had hampered the team in the past, chief among them the rotation of the strike, especially in the middle passage of the innings when the slow bowlers are typically in operation and boundaries may be at a premium.
“I suppose the critical area, probably, I mean, it’s no secret that we’ve struggled to rotate the (strike) and playing the spinners have been an issue,” he said. “It’s not anything that the players don’t know, but we’ve tried to address that area.
“Since Darren Sammy has taken over, we’ve got some some KPI (key performance indicators), some targets that we’d love to meet, and certainly in Dubai, and so far (in Zimbabwe), we’ve met those targets. I think it’s really a process, but I think we’re well on our way to try to rectify and address these areas.”
He said: “There has been an issue, I suppose, outside of the Power Play after 10 overs. We are very good strikers of the ball, but what happens in between the fours and the sixes? We’ve gotta be able be able to rotate the strike.
“We’ve addressed this, but it’s one thing saying that we’ve addressed this. We are also going to have to develop the skill sets in order to rotate the strike. We’ve been implementing some things in the nets, there’s been a lot of discussion how we can rotate it – pushing the ball into the gaps, running hard, so these are some of the areas.”
Hooper said it will take time for the players to improve in this area, but it was a process that he could not come and fix overnight.
“The important thing is to raise the awareness, which the players are well aware that this is an area that we gotta get better at and then try to develop the necessary technical skills in order to execute a bit better in the middle phase of the game,” he said.
Each team in the Qualifier will play the other teams in their group once with the top three from the groups progressing to the Super Six stage from June 29, to July 7.
The teams that moved onto the Super Six stage will each play three matches against the sides they did not meet in the group stage.
All points won in the group stage will be carried over to the Super Six stage apart from those gained against the bottom two from each group.
The final between the top two sides after the Super Six stage will be played on July 9, at the Harare Sports Club, and the two teams will also progress to the World Cup.