West Indies miss practice and Hooper

This summer, the feeling is more of panic than simple hope, as the organisers of the World Cup are praying more than ever before, for dry month's of May and June. While the rain is totally uncontrollable, all cricket lovers, and ECB members, are optimistic the gods are preparing for kindness. If the last two days are anything to go by the prayers obviously aren't reaching the right channels, as many of the preparatory game's, between visiting countries and the county sides have felt the wrath of varying levels of precipitation.

While the home side enjoyed important practice at Kent's beautiful, but cold, Canterbury Oval most of the visitors have had less luck. The West Indies for one, only played 16.3 overs today in their first taste of English conditions for this summer. Although the once mighty West Indies have recently enjoyed a promising fight back against the Aussies, in the Test and one-day series, I feel they are going to need all the practice they can get before their quest for the World Cup begins.

Although no one man is ever irreplaceable Carl Hooper's all round ability and talent will be sorely missed by the West Indies, not only in this tournament, but in the future. His retirement came as a shock to say the least, especially before one-day cricket's Holy Grail. Amidst all the controversies and dilemmas of the last eight months Hooper's retirement only adds to the perceived disorder of West Indian cricket. While the proud and passionate Windies cricketers have fought with admiral determination in the last two months it is going to take a Herculean effort to overcome all the negative karma of the recent past to win the World Cup.

When we (the Aussies) arrived in Antigua in late February, the game of cricket was in absolute disarray. There was talk of Brian Lara resigning, or even being sacked, and it was almost as if the Caribbean people, who treat the game like a religion, were in mourning for their rich cricket traditions and history. After being beaten five nil in the Test series, and equally as convincingly in the one-day series, answers were being sort.

Like only a great player could Brian Lara fought back from this adversity and his 200 in Jamaica in the second Test match proved why he is undoubtedly one of the greatest players to have ever played the game. Not only was his batting superb, in fact totally awesome in every sense of the word, his leadership under such pressure must be equally applauded. His inspiration, plus a very hard working unit, made them very competitive in the Caribbean series. Whether they can continue this form remains to be seen, but the fact that they have three great players in Lara, Walsh and Ambrose, plus workers like Jimmy Adams, Shiverine Chanderpaul and Sherwin Campbell, and a fairly balanced fast bowling attack, I think the West Indies will continue this competitiveness.

The greatest hurdle facing the West Indies may not only be the strength of the opposition, and the loss of Carl Hooper, but also the change in conditions from the wonderful Caribbean air. While the ball will swing more than they are used to they will also have to adapt to the less electric English atmosphere. This could prove tough as the Caribbean players will miss the general constancy of music and rhythms of the Caribbean air, as common at West Indian cricket grounds as traffic jams are in London. Hopefully for the West Indies sake the lack of music and festivity, and the foreign cold chills, won't have any affect on the batsmen's footwork, the fieldsmen's enthusiasm or the bowler's rhythm.

In a nutshell, I feel the West Indies will be competitive, but while they are a semi-final chance, my humble view is that they won't be in the final on June 20.

Time will tell!

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