CWI congratulates Windies on World Cup qualification

PRESIDENT of Cricket West Indies (CWI) Dave Cameron has congratulated the Windies on qualifying for the 2019 ICC World Cup in England and Wales following their victory over Scotland yesterday.

West Indies qualified for the global showpiece with a five-run victory under the Duckworth/Lewis/Stern Method, after rain washed out the remainder of play with Scotland 125 for five from 35.2 overs, chasing 199 for victory, in the ICC World Cup Qualifier at the Harare Sports Club in Zimbabwe.

“Qualification for the World Cup is great news for Windies Cricket, and on behalf of the Directors, Management and Staff of CWI, we want to applaud them for their efforts and thank our fans globally, who continue to stand by us,” said Cameron.

“We are grateful to every player that made the sacrifice and committed himself to this task of ensuring qualification under the leadership of Jason Holder, as well as the team management unit under Stuart Law, and their collective hard work over the last few weeks to ensure that this goal was achieved.”

With the mission of qualifying for the World Cup accomplished, Cameron urged the team to finish the job at hand by defeating hosts Zimbabwe in Sunday’s final at the same venue. He sees winning the final as the first step towards the goal of winning the World Cup, something the team last accomplished back in 1979.

“We look forward to their continued involvement, as we now set our sights on winning the World Cup,” he said.
“Every step we make from this point onwards must be to put the building blocks in place for us to be able to win the World Cup for a third time, next year.

“There would be no better place to win the World Cup than in England. We won the first two editions of the World Cup when they hosted them, and there is a strong and special connection in the game between there and the Caribbean.”

Cameron said there was a minimum of 20 One-day Internationals and another edition of the Super50 Cup, as well as other training and playing opportunities available to regional players to make a claim for a place in the World Cup squad.

“Right now, I know there are a lot of Windies cricket fans in England and, indeed, the Caribbean keen on making plans to attend the World Cup matches and give the team their full support,” he said.

“We want the players to use that knowledge and be inspired to perform to greater heights and use all of the opportunities provided to them over the next year to gear themselves towards a bigger and more rewarding prize – winning the World Cup.”