West Indies coach puts money on England to rule Champions Trophy

England have been invincible at home. They have two quality fast bowlers to exploit the swing, and have high-quality batsmen in the form of Alastair Cook and Ian Bell to tackle the swing. England, more often than not, are hard to defeat at home. They made it to the finals of Champions Trophy 2004, which was held in England. They  also won the  ICC World Twenty20 in England.

West Indies Coach Ottis Gibson has also picked England as favourites to win this tournament. He also feels that England are more familiar with the conditions and hence they would be a tough team to beat at home. “England would be the best team to play in England in these conditions at this time of the year” Gibson said. “In my mind, they are the favourites and for the rest of the seven teams, it is who gets settled and used to the conditions quickly enough.

“And that’s what our aim is – to get there and get ourselves acclimatised as quickly as possible,” Gibson said. “We know that we have a lot of guys who have played in England before in those conditions but it is all about gelling as soon as we can and making sure that when the main event comes on June 7, we are ready for that.”

Although West Indies won the Champions Trophy in 2004, they failed to replicate the same performance when they toured England the last summer. They were thwarted by an excellent bowling performance from England. England wrapped up the Test Series 2-0 and the three match ODI Series 2-0.

But West Indies were crowned T20 Champions last year. Gibson also explained the importance of winning a major tournament. “Winning major events gives the confidence” Gibson said. “There will be some pressure of course, but the fact that we have won the last major event means that we get confidence from it also, and there is a lot of belief among the players.”

He also said that conditions will play an important role. “It might be that we think when we are playing subcontinental teams, which play spin very well, we might want to play an extra fast bowler or whatever the case may be. We don’t know that yet.”

“Getting out of the group is our first challenge and getting to the quarter-finals and semi-finals, and then our aim is to be playing on the 23rd, in the finals. I think we have a pretty good record in finals.”