LARA OPTIMISTIC OF WINDIES AT WORLD T20

For­mer West In­dies bat­ting mae­stro, Bri­an Lara be­lieves the Caribbean side re­main a feared side in the short­est for­mat but will not be among the favourites for next year’s Twen­ty/20 World Cup, in Aus­tralia.

West In­dies are reign­ing Twenty/20 world cham­pi­ons fol­low­ing their con­quest at the last World Cup in In­dia three years ago, but have since en­dured a run of poor re­sults, leav­ing them ninth in the ICC rank­ings on­ly above the likes of Bangladesh and Scotland.

The Twenty/20 World Cup is set for 8^th Oc­to­ber to 15^th November and West In­dies will hope to make their mark especial­ly af­ter pro­duc­ing a huge­ly dis­ap­point­ing show­ing at the 50-overs World Cup ear­li­er this year, in Eng­land.

In the wake of that de­ba­cle, Crick­et West In­dies have made sever­al changes, among them ap­point­ing Kieron Pol­lard as white-ball cap­tain and an­nounc­ing for­mer Test bats­man Phil Sim­mons as the new head coach.