Greetings, friends! I just happen to be on good terms with a few people in Australia who know how to win world cups, and as a WI cricket patriot, I would like to now share this with you.

On the ODI team that WI have selected, we need big runs from the top and our specialist bowlers must not have to bear the burden of batting and getting runs for us in order to defeat the top cricket teams in the world.

This is why India could not win the World Cup recently as their top order failed to put up a challenging score againast the Aussies.

We must find a way to realistically get the best from each player selected, match in, match out. These are my expected batting averages from the Windies players at the top of the order: Brandon King – 46 runs, Kjorn Ottley – 42 runs, Shimron Hetmyer – 50 runs, Shai Hope – 50 runs, Alic Athenaze – 40 runs, Shurfane Rutherford – 47 runs and Matthew Forde –39 runs.

If the WI get these runs as an average from these batters and the average economy rate of our bowlers is five, then we are going to be invincible at any World Cup in one-day cricket for a long time! This is also a good batting order that the selectors have picked.

The rest should be: Romario Shepherd, Yannic Cariah, Gudakesh Motie and Alzarri Joseph as specialist bowlers.

To win big, the WI need an average of two batters getting tons or one ton and two 50s at 6.2 runs per over each.

WI also need to keep the scoreboard ticking with runs apart from boundaries. Winning is easier if WI can get five wickets in the first 20 overs when we bowl, in order to dry up the runs of the opposition.

Having big wickets in hand also allows us to treat the final 15 overs as if we were playing in a T20 match – something we are actually good at.

And WI need to incorporate much of the T20 approach to its one-day and Test cricket teams, because this is how smart cricket teams are going to win trophies, from now on.

Also, the WI should get batting averages at their best from these players: Shane Dowrich – 35 runs, Keacy Carty – 37 runs and Roston Chase – 33 runs. It would also be a world-beating idea to blood young talents such as Nayeem Young, Ashmeed Nedd and Jordan Johnson at the highest level of our cricket, and soon.

FITZROY OTHELLO

Princes Town