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Windies look to play positive cricket and beat India

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West Indies quietly checked into a city hotel on Monday. On Wednesday, they announced their arrival with the customary press conference with coach Stuart Williams and manager Richie Richardson in a not-so-packed CK Nayudu Hall of the Cricket Club of India, an unsual sight for an international team. Only a handful of journalists chose to stay back for their practice session at the Brabourne Stadium.

The West Indies have become a familiar team for the Indians, having toured here three times in as many years. There is no buzz about them like how it used to be earlier. Enthusiasts have already made their predictions of India winning the Test and ODI series easily.

Former Windies captain and now manager Richie Richardson did most of the talking in the presser while the newly-appointed coach Stuart Williams answered only a few. The visitors may not be rated highly compared to their fancied counterparts but Richardson believed they have the team to give the Indians some competition.

"I believe that we have the calibre of players that can go out there and perform and play well enough to beat anybody. We accept that we are not at the top of the rankings, but with the ability that we have, if we execute well, the guys are going to play confident and positive cricket. I believe we can do very well against India," said Richardson.

Richardson felt they are better prepared this time. "We have arrived at a good time, we have a few days to practice and get acclimatised. All our players have been engaged. We have just come out of a successful series against Bangladesh. Some are still playing (in CLT20). We feel we are in a much better shape, much better prepared to take on the Indians and we are just looking forward to a very serious challenge, a good challenge and a successful challenge."

West Indies want to cash on India's defeat in Tests against England. "When you lose, especially when you are a top team and you lose, you just can't wait until the next series to really put things right. I just hope that it continues to be a problem for India. We know they are going to look to avenge what happened in England, put things right because they were heavily criticised. But we are up for the challenge and we also have a lot to prove.

So, we are going to go there and play positive cricket and look to beat India," said Richardson.

Dwayne Bravo replaced Darren Sammy as their new ODI captain and Richardson had high hopes of him. "In the short space of time that he (Bravo) has been captain, he has done reasonably well. He is a very intelligent cricketer. He has got lots and lots of experience. He has been playing for the West Indies for a while, has played all over the world and certainly has a lot of experience in Indian conditions. He knows the Indian players and I am pretty sure he will do well as a captain in ODI matches," he said.

With less than five months to go for the World Cup, West Indies are looking at the series as a preparation for it. "Confidence is one of the things that you can gain. Obviously we look at this do-or-die series as preparation for the World Cup. I am sure the coaches and the selectors would be looking at a number of players. The coaches will have their strategy along with the captain as to how they want to prepare and their plans. This is like a starting point for us to put things in place and start our plans and preparation for the World Cup."

Playing against Bangladesh spinners in a recent series will come of help for the West Indians when they take on the Indian tweakers. "The coach mentioned the wickets in the Caribbean and here are pretty similar and the fact that a number of our batsmen have been playing against Asian spinners, it certainly would help. But one would say the Indian spinners are a better combination and much more formidable. So we would have to work harder, dig a bit deeper. Certainly having recently played against Bangladesh would help our batsmen," said Richardson.

WI management backs Narine
West Indies team management is standing behind mystery spinner Sunil Narine, who was recently reported for chucking during a CLT20 game while playing for Kolkata Knight Riders. "We haven't actually spoken to Sunil as yet. Sunil obviously is a champion. He is a strong character. Obviously the captain is also playing for Chennai so, we haven't sat down and spoken about it as yet. So, we are still waiting for a couple of days to have a chat. I think he will get over this in a positive way," said Williams.

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