NAPIER – After extensively travelling across Australia and New Zealand for the past month, the West Indies cricketers hopped in their tour bus yesterday and drove from Napier to Wellington to contest the quarter-final of the ICC World Cup against New Zealand.
It has been a taxing tour in every sense. The regional cricketers have had to endure travelling to New Zealand twice for three matches and their journey in Australia has included a 5 1/2 hour flight from Sydney to Perth and back, drives in early morning from Canberra to Sydney that has all resulted in them racking up thousands of miles.
But their comfortable, even if unconvincing victory over United Arab Emirates (UAE) has drawn them a place to meet the unbeaten home team on Saturday in what will be a sell-out match at the ultra-modern Westpac Stadium.
As expected, Chris Gayle’s troubled back forced him out of the eleven but his absence was hardly noticeable as Johnson Charles was a suitable replacement as the West Indies after limiting UAE to 175, sped to 176-4 in 30.3 overs.
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