Bermuda Feeling Confident

Reports & previews

Cricket365
March 15, 2007

Bermuda coach Gus Logie insists his side can follow the West Indies' example and raise their game when it counts.

Bermuda coach Gus Logie insists his side can follow the West Indies' example and raise their game when it counts.
Logie's team of outsiders face Sri Lanka in their opening World Cup Group B match in Port of Spain, Trinidad, later today and are expected to lose heavily, as they did to England in a warm-up match in St Vincent earlier this month.
However, Logie insists form in the pre-tournament exchanges need not count for much, with the West Indies putting aside a disappointing defeat to India to beat Pakistan in the World Cup's opening fixture.
He said: "The West Indies were also beaten badly by India but they bounced back against Pakistan. We will be hoping to emulate that.
"I have already told them to play their natural game and forget about the opposition. It is not easy coming up against players like Muttiah Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh, so our guys just have to play their normal game."
Logie, a former West Indies batsman, believes the game against Sri Lanka will put Bermuda on the international cricketing map.
"The World Cup is the ultimate and the Bermudans are now part of it and this is great," he said.
Bermuda, who will be making their tournament debut, are likely to include Glamorgan captain David Hemp as the only professional in the side.
Heavyweight spinner Dwayne Leverock, who captured the wickets of Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood in the warm-up game against England in St Vincent, showed tremendous control while 17-year-old batsman Malachi Jones will be one of the youngest players to feature in a World Cup.
Mahela Jayawardene believes Sri Lanka have a team which "can go the distance" as they prepare to meet the minnows.
The 1996 champions have retained the services of four of the players who guided them to the title and Jayawardene insists that experience could prove vital.
He said: "We are going to concentrate on each game and when that is over, we will look at the next one.
"We believe we have the team that can go the whole distance, we have several exciting combinations."
Among the survivors from 1996 are Sanath Jayasuriya, who redefined the role of opening batsman 11 years ago with his explosive left-handed batting while off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan has the control to bowl without offering a loose ball. Opening bowler Chaminda Vaas and Marvan Atapattu are the other players.
Jayawardene feels the World Cup brings out the best in most players and he was not prepared to write off Bermuda, who were bowled out for a paltry 46 by England.
He explained: "Bermuda are an unknown team and we will be taking them very seriously. We are not going to underestimate them."
The other two teams in Group B, India and Bangladesh, meet on Saturday.