CANBERRA – West Indies captain Darren Sammy has a simple goal for the Caribbean team’s tour of Australia – to be consistent.
“I see it as a continuation of what happened in the Caribbean – over there in the limited-overs format it was a draw 2-2,” Sammy told reporters yesterday.
“We’ve got five One-Day Internationals here so we want to play hard and competitive cricket. It’s always a challenge to play Australia anywhere in the world, but even more so in their own backyard.
“We believe we can come here and if we can execute our plans and play to our strengths, we can be successful.”
West Indies put in a creditable performance in a home series last year when the spoils were shared and the two teams also enjoyed a split of the matches at ICC World Twenty20 in October.
It sets the stage for the sides to renew their rivalry.
“We have a lot of respect for Australia, you can never count Australia out. They’re professionals and know how to dig themselves out of a hole,” Sammy said.
“We won’t watch the results of the Sri Lanka series, but we’ll look at some areas to implement in our game. I expect it to be a hard-fought battle and we’re looking to play it very hard.”
The first One-Day International is set for Friday [Thursday night East Caribbean time] and West Indies will have their only warm-up match against the Australia Prime Minister’s XI at Munaka Oval tomorrow [tonight Barbados time].
Skipper Sammy and his side will be expecting a good workout against a team led by former Australia captain Ricky Ponting.
“As an individual and as a team we have just got to get the basics right and execute if you want to win,” he said.
“This is the only practice match we have before we start against Australia in Perth later this week, so this is a chance to hit the ground running.
“The guys have been playing a lot of cricket back home and hopefully we can get this series off to a great start here.”
Coach Ottis Gibson believes his players will adjust to the conditions as they prepare for the series, which will include five One-Day Internationals and a one-off Twenty20 International.
“We’re hoping we can hit the ground running. We’ve just come out of a tournament at home so everyone has been playing cricket and the guys have shown good form,” Gibson said.
“We believe we’ve got a good mix of some young players and some very experienced players.” (HG)
