Team Talk - West Indies

Warm up record:

Match #1 - 19 run win against Kenya
Match #2 - 9 wicket loss against India

The West Indies has been very disappointing so far. They have let down all their supporters with some insipid performances in the two warm up matches. They nearly lost to Kenya and were thrashed by India thanks to a pathetic batting performance that would have shamed any of the minnows of this tournament.

Almost every cricket fan is hoping that the Windies find their groove and perform well in this cup so that cricket sees a resurgance in this region again. As Mark mentioned in an earlier thread, cricket needs a strong Windies back in its fold. It just seems to make the game more interesting and watchable to watch them play.

However for this to happen they need to play to their strengths and use the home advantage to put up some good performances. A lot is riding on the backs of these players and one hopes that they can live up to these expectations and not falter as they have so far.

Key Players:

* Lara - He has to lead from the front and inspire his team to win ala Ponting. He is going to have a tough time getting everyone in his team to play to their potential. However he has had decent run as captain so far and the Windies will be praying that he can transform his team of under-performers into bona-fide winners.

* Gayle - Possibly the most under-rated all-rounder today in world cricket. His exploits as a batsman are well known. After Lara he is the most dangerous batsman in the team. He can get the Windies off to wonderful starts and is a very dangerous bowler. The others need to do their job and use his starts to build a good score and not give the match away as they often seem to do when he gets out.

* Chanderpaul - He is the lynchpin of the Windies batting lineup. The windies desperately need him to support Lara and Gayle to help build a good score. He has often been guilty of not scoring quickly enough or faltering when the pressure is on.

* M Samuels - He has had some good scores of late. The Windies will be hoping that he can continue to score big and help set up/chase down some big scores.

My prediction:

The Windies are on very shaky ground. They should make it to the next round, but the Irish on current form look like they could ambush this team and prevent them from making it to the Super 8.

I will go out on a limb and say that they will not make it into the Super 8 round if they lose to the Pakistanis. So much is riding on this match against the Pakistanis on the 13th.

Team Talk - Australia
Team Talk - India
Team Talk - Pakistan