From bigstarcricket.com Diary The World Cup was very disappointing. A lot of people expected high things from us and it didn’t come off. I’m really sorry that we let down the Caribbean people. It was one of those things and though I am still depressed about it, life goes on and we have to try to look forward to the England tour. We have to be strong. Personally in the World Cup, my form wasn’t running very well for me, I don’t know why, but things just didn’t go well. At least in the final game I was able to score a good half-century against England and I felt like I had turned a corner, even though it was too late for the tournament. The fact I made that innings against England, where we will be touring this month, was good for my confidence. I’m a strong person and I know that I will bounce back after the tough times. Since the World Cup there have obviously been a few changes. At some stage we knew that (Ramnaresh) Sarwan would come in as skipper as he has been the vice-captain since 2003. People shouldn’t be too hard on him too early. Brian Lara said it is not an easy job but Sarwan will definitely get the team’s support and full backing. I’m sure he will grow into the job and be a great skipper for West Indies. The other major change was Bennett King’s resignation as coach. That was a surprise to me. He didn’t say anything to the players and the first I knew of it was when I saw the story on the news. It looks like we’ll be having a new coach for the tour but I don’t know who at this time. The England tour will be a challenging series because they always play well at home but we are definitely looking for some revenge after they beat us 4-0 in 2004. England are coming off a 5-0 beating against Australia so it will be interesting to see how they come back from that. But we are aware of the talent they have in their side, with players like (Andrew) Flintoff, (Kevin) Pietersen and Ian Bell. Personally, I have nice memories from my last Test match in England as I scored 105 at The Oval in that 2004 series and I managed to hit Matthew Hoggard for six fours in one over. I also got into the 80's twice, but because we lost the series 4-0, I wasn’t able to enjoy the innings' in the same way as if we had won. This is a new era for West Indies with Brian now retired. It’s going to feel strange not having him around and there’s going to be a different feel to the dressing room. He’s someone who has done tremendous things for international cricket and I wish him well with whatever he chooses to do. © Copyright bigstarcricket.com |