I had a very quiet chat with Courtney on the issue, and I am sure he is aware of the great respect I have always had for him.
I spent the entire day in my room on Monday, reflecting. Rainy, overcast conditions, and no chance of practice... or even a round of golf. I had a flashback to earlier this year-India versus the West Indies, Sabina Park, Jamaica: ``Sen in our boy!'' ``We need quick runs.'' ``Lara is the man!''
And now, five, six months later-T&T versus Jamaica, Chedwin Park, Jamaica: ``Lara! That will teach you to make 'statement'!'' ``''You caan come a Jamaica afta you diss we captain!'' ``Give up, Lara! Hooper better captain than you''. Spectators sing a different tune every time. Boy, I love West Indian people.
I also spent the entire day on Monday trying to come up with a plan to help our batting. We have to put aside what happened on Sunday, and work to a win today. We batsmen have to show much more guts, and take charge of the field.
The Windward Islands are up, having been in control of their rained-out match against Jamaica, and clearly played the better cricket versus Bermuda.
But we will be looking to rebound from our loss on Sunday, to move into the semi-finals. There is, of course, the possibility of our meeting the Windwards again in the quarters on Saturday, so we are well determined to show our superiority.
The opposition batting will depend a lot on Dawnley Joseph, so our bowlers will be looking to get his wicket early.
The Windwards also have a formidable bowling attack, especially in the fast bowling department.
Trinidad and Tobago's batsmen will have to flourish in the face of Nixon MCLean, Caspar Davis, and Ian Allen.
Phil Simmons will definitely be going in at number three. He even suggested this himself. This should give us some more stability in the early batting.
In the bowling, Ramnarine could come into the final XI. This is not to say that we have any problem with our bowling, but it would be nice to see what effect the two leg-spinners will have on the Windward Islands. Bless the sunshine, we got some fielding practice yesterday. It was purposeful, with quite a bit of running between the wickets. And the chief batsmen got a solid workout.
We failed to produce against the Jamaican opening attack, and the Windwards' fast bowlers are very strong during their opening spells. But we have identified that our weakness is in the first 15 overs. Admitting that weakness is halfway towards solving the problem, so we go into this match with a point to prove.
Our team meeting last night, in fact, was short and straight and to the point: batsmen, please put runs on the board, and the bowlers will take care of the rest.
Rain has forced the match to be moved to Melbourne, Kingston, and has made a mess of many of our plans since we got here. I have no control over the rain, just as I have no control over comments thrown at me. But I wish they would both just let us play cricket.