Windies hold all the aces with fearless cricket inspired by Jason Holder

West Indies may not be among the World Cup favourites, but captain Jason Holder believes fate and the experience of winning major tournaments could see them pull off a shock this summer.

Holder’s team have history on their side given West Indies’
two World Cup wins both came in England – in 1975 and 1979. More recently the
men from the Caribbean have won two World T20s, in 2012 and, after beating
England in the final in Kolkata, in 2016.

However, having been forced to qualify for this year’s tournament, the West Indies are not expected to be among the leading contenders for this World Cup, even if they showed their potential to cause an upset when drawing their series against favourites England 2-2 in the Caribbean back in March.

That result against the No1-ranked side could only instil
belief. So the bullish response of Holder when asked whether his team can win the World Cup should be no surprise.

“Definitely, man,” he said. “I think anyone in our
dressing-room would think the script should be written for us to lift the third
World Cup here in England. It’s obviously something to play for but we’ve got
to take it step by step, we’ve got a lot of work to put in.

“No doubt everybody in the group would be giving their all
to lift the trophy and we’ve had the recent success in the T20 arena. The guys
will tell you it’s a really proud feeling to win a World Cup and to perform so
beautifully at that level. So the guys are really up for it.”

As hosts and top of the world rankings, England are rightly
favourites for the tournament. Yet Holder has warned Eoin Morgan’s men that the
added pressure of that tag could be their downfall – just as it was when they
were knocked out of the 2017 Champions Trophy at the semi-final stage by
Pakistan. “It’s funny how things go at these world events,” he said. “I think
it’s all about which team can hold their nerve and perform under extreme
pressure.

“We’ve probably talked up a lot of teams prior to World Cups
who have not come in and performed as everybody thought they would. That’s
surely down to not being able to hold their nerve and handle the tight
situations. For me it’s an open tournament where any given team could come
together and do something special.

“I don’t think many people would have thought Pakistan would
win the Champions Trophy here in England a couple of years ago.

“Pakistan won that competition because they just played the closer moments better than the teams they played against. I think we could see something similar in this World Cup.”

West Indies have been buoyed by the return of Chris Gayle, who even at the age of 39 showed his class when he scored 424 runs at an average of 106 during that series against England earlier this year.

“It’s a huge boost to have Chris, especially
psychologically,” said Holder. “When he is at the crease lots of people fear
him – he’s a definite match-winner and has proven that on a number of
occasions.”

Other experienced heads in the squad include Darren Bravo,
Carlos Brathwaite and fast bowler Shannon Gabriel.

Allied to the all-round talents of Holder and exciting young
batsmen such as Shimron Hetmyer and Shai Hope, West Indies have plenty of
reasons to be positive ahead of the World Cup even if they were beaten by
Bangladesh in the final of the recent Tri-Series in Ireland.

“I’m really excited,” said Holder. “We’ve got a pretty young
group and we’ve still got some players at the back end of their careers. It’ll
be interesting to see the great mix that we put together.

“We are probably seen as underdogs – which is good for us.
We can probably play a little more fearlessly than the teams who are higher
ranked. We’ve had the opportunity of playing in the World Cup qualifier, which
was quite something – a really good challenge.

“We’re pretty much at the flip side of that scenario where we’re coming into the World Cup as underdogs and we’ve got the opportunity to go and play fearless cricket.”

CHRIS STOCKS / Photo: Getty Images