World Cup winner Clive Lloyd backs West Indies to win in 2019
One of the greatest cricket leaders of all time has had his say on the favourites to win the World Cup commencing in about a year from now in England and Wales. Former West Indies captain and the man who led them to three successive World Cup finals, winning in the first two, Clive Lloyd has predicted the next year's showcase ICC event to be very closely contested.
Speaking to BBC's Mike Williams on the Stumped Cricket podcast, Lloyd called modern ODI cricket "a tough game", primarily owing to the high intensity of the contests throughout. When asked as to who will be the chief contenders to win the silverware, Lloyd seemed quite coy to pick one particular team, he said, "I don't think there is any one favourite, there are five or six teams, that I call, will do well."
Referring to the potential rectification of the Windies' fallout with the likes of Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, he said, "If they play all their players who are good enough, they can be very competitive. They can even win it, in the sense that every one-day competition we have played here, we have done well. So, there is a bit of past history as well to support them."
The Caribbean cricketers have been in excellent nick this season, not just in the Twenty20 franchise competitions, but in the Test matches too, while they drew 1-1 with Sri Lanka, they currently have Bangladesh in all sorts of bother in the ongoing Test series.
Much of their recent success as a side is coming on the back of performances by their fast bowlers. Shannon Gabriel, Jason Holder and Kemar Roach have all looked menacing and if they manage to step up as a unit in the UK next year, the Windies just might spring a surprise.
Lloyd was also very vocal about Chris Gayle's impact on the side, he thinks if the talismanic opener can maintain his fitness for the one next year, his recent IPL performances certainly indicate that he still has some firepower left to help his side win their first World Cup since the rout of 1979, and their first ICC one-day cricket prize since their memorable 2004 Champions Trophy heist.