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Jesse Ryder offered a ‘thumbs up’ gesture and interacted with his family and manager on the day two men were arrested and charged with assault in connection with the attack

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Mar-2013Jesse Ryder offered a ‘thumbs up’ gesture and interacted with his family and manager on the day two men were arrested and charged with assault in connection with the attack that left the New Zealand cricketer in an induced coma in a Christchurch hospital.The two men, aged 20 and 37, are set to appear in the Christchurch District Court on April 4.Progress in the police investigation was accompanied by signs of improvement in Ryder’s condition, which is now deemed stable rather than critical by medical staff. Heath Mills, the New Zealand players association chief executive, delivered a statement on behalf of the family.”Jesse is in a stable condition in intensive care. He’s been responsive and interacting with his family and the medical team,” Mills said. “Jesse is still in an induced coma, and is still needing support with breathing due to an injury to his lungs. In terms of a head injury, it cannot be fully determined at this stage what the effects of a knock to Jesse’s head are. We will know more once he comes out of the coma.”Ryder’s manager, Aaron Klee, said the thumbs up had been delivered to a neurosurgeon at the hospital before his family interacted further. Ryder’s level of sedation had been adjusted to allow him to interact with his family, Klee said, though he added that “it’s awful, he’s lying there with tubes everywhere”.”I was there this morning and they’re working on the level of sedation of the coma to a level where they can talk to Jesse and make him aware of talking to him,” Klee said. “We got a thumbs up from him this morning. Everyone was very pleased [to hear that].”We then had some interaction with me and Jesse and Jesse’s mum and Jesse’s partner. We were able to talk to him and he looked at us.”Medical staff are now assessing when may be the right time to bring Ryder out of the coma. Klee expressed thanks for all the many messages of support that have come in from around the world, and said these messages had been relayed to Ryder in hospital.Detective Senior Sergeant Bryan Archer of Christchurch police said they were now confident that only two men had been involved in the attacks.”I’ve been able to review the CCTV footage and I think we can describe it as being an altercation outside Aikmans and a second incident in the carpark to McDonald’s,” he told reporters.”A member of the public got involved to try and break up the fight and that’s probably swelled the numbers from what people saw, but I believe the altercation involved two people initially and one person in the second incident.”A candlelight vigil for Ryder will be held outside Christchurch Hospital at 7pm local time. It will be led by the Canterbury Cricket chief executive Lee Germon and the city councillor Aaron Keown.”I am really upset this has happened in our city and it is a really bad image for Christchurch,” Keown said. “Good Friday is meant to be a day of peace and the whole country will be looking at Christchurch and saying, ‘If a cricket player can’t go out with his mates and not be assaulted then what is going on?'”Ryder had been celebrating the end of the season with several Wellington team mates at Aikmans Bar in Merivale. Archer said he got into a brief altercation with a group of people as he left the bar. He crossed the road to join his team mates in McDonalds, but was assaulted before he got there.

Australia’s cricketers departed for the West Indies with two abiding sensations: weariness and optimism

Daniel Brettig09-Mar-2012Australia’s cricketers departed for the West Indies with two abiding sensations. One was weariness, after a seemingly endless summer that will now have a Caribbean postscript. The other, more significantly, was optimism following a season in which a new team was forged, benefiting from new leadership, youthful selections, improved support staff, fresh ideas and renewed purpose.Leading them for the ODI portion of the Caribbean trip is Shane Watson, the allrounder fresher for the task than many team-mates due to the hamstring and calf injuries that kept him out of six home Test matches. Michael Clarke’s absence until the Tests due to back-related hamstring trouble is a measure of how draining the summer has been for the full-time leader’s body, and Watson said he was ready to bear a greater share of the leadership and performance load on tour.”I am very fresh after missing the majority of the summer so I am very excited to be able to go and continue to play a lot more cricket,” Watson said at Sydney Airport. “I have got through [the ODIs] and that is the most important thing.”A couple of months ago it probably seemed a long way off to be able to get through playing a few games back to back, I got through well and while I haven’t been able to get the runs I wanted, it has been nice to be able to contribute as much as I have with the ball.”The team Watson takes with him is vastly different from the one he left when injured in South Africa. Skills are tighter, plans better defined, relationships are more comfortable and confidence more robust. Watson noted the greater prevalence of centuries across the summer, in both Tests and ODIs – a trend he wishes to add to with his own contributions.”Little thing skills wise [have changed], seeing from afar how guys were able to turn even fifties into hundreds and really big hundreds that was something we hadn’t been able to do previously, not consistently anyway. Even through the one-dayers there were quite a few hundreds,” Watson said. “The catching improved and that is something we have been talking about as a group.”Also our bowling, our skills, you could just see our skills improved. Peter Siddle bowled extremely well through the Test series and that really does come down to the guys putting in the hard work but most importantly the coaches who are around our group have been challenging us in a good way.”I have seen even from afar how much some of the guys have improved having Craig McDermott there and we have seen the bowlers continue to improve and it is exciting to know that the right coaching and the right resources have been able to get the best out of our players.”Then there is the depth created by the emergence of players like Nathan Lyon, James Pattinson and latterly Peter Forrest. Another fresher face in the squad is that of George Bailey, who has been elevated to the Twenty20 captaincy on the strength of his leadership with Tasmania, but now has the chance to pursue middle-order batting posts in the longer forms.”It’s a very exciting time in Australian cricket,” Watson said. “To think even 12 months ago that things were being said that the depth in Australian cricket might not be that good, to actually see the guys who are coming through, Pat Cummins for example. To see guys like that actually be able to come into the team and perform straight away is an amazing thing because I know how hard it is stepping up to international cricket as a young guy.”James Pattinson has been brilliant, Nathan Lyon … to see these guys come in and perform straight away is a very exciting thing. To actually know that we’ve got some great depth now and in the future with a few other guys still on their way back from injury and also some guys who will continue to improve in domestic cricket to put pressure on the more senior guys.”Watson said he expected Pattinson to miss at least the first two ODIs as he recovered from a buttock strain, before resuming in the latter part of the series. The first match against the West Indies will take place on March 16.

Hamid Hassan, the Afghanistan fast bowler, has welcomed the opportunity to play for the MCC against county champions Nottinghamshire in a four-day game in Abu Dhabi

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Mar-2011Hamid Hassan, the Afghanistan fast bowler, has welcomed the opportunity to play for the MCC against county champions Nottinghamshire in a four-day game in Abu Dhabi. Hassan and offspinner Mohammad Nabi are the two Afghanistan players selected in the MCC squad.”It’s quite a big opportunity: for my country, for Mohammad Nabi and for me to play for the MCC,” Hassan told the . “They are a big name in cricket history, so we’re happy, very happy, to play this game for them against the county champions.”So this is quite a big opportunity for me, it can make my name but also my country’s name. There are other good players in Afghanistan, they can do it in the future as well, that is why we are very excited.”Afghanistan have enjoyed a rapid rise in world cricket over the past couple of years: they won the ICC World Twenty20 qualifiers in Dubai in February last year and qualified for the World Twenty20 in the West Indies later that year. They beat Pakistan in the Asian Games in Guangzhou in November and won the silver medal after they lost to Bangladesh in the final. They also beat Scotland to secure the ICC Intercontinental Cup in December.”Sport is the only thing to bring the people together,” Hassan said. “We are all from different places and provinces, but all together we make a name for Afghanistan. It is our country, we have to play for the team, not for the province and not for the city. We are very keen and very happy to make a name.”The ICC’s decision to reduce the number of teams from 14 to 10 for the next 50-over World Cup has come under criticism from several quarters and Hassan said he was not in favour of it. “I think it’s not a good idea,” he said. “People will not take an interest. If you give a chance to these teams – Afghanistan, Ireland, Netherlands – if they play against the biggest teams then maybe they can improve. If Afghanistan had the chance, 10 ODIs against a big team, maybe they would win three or four.”However, Hamid hoped that Afghanistan would continue to impress at the international level, especially at the Twenty20 level, which he believed was a format suited to his team’s strengths. “Twenty20 is very funny cricket. No one knows what will happen, maybe you can beat any team in T20. Last year we played India and South Africa, it was a fun time and we learnt a lot from both teams.”The ultimate dream, however, is to one day play Test cricket. “Of course, we hope to play Test cricket. Three or four international stadiums are being built. We have good academies and turf wickets in Jalalabad, Kabul and Kandahar. Next year everything will be ready for cricket games.”

Mike Young, the assistant coach of Deccan Chargers and USA’s most successful cricketing export, has said he believes cricket can become ‘extremely successful’ in his homeland if the current administration could ’embrace change

Cricinfo staff12-Apr-2010Mike Young, the assistant coach of Deccan Chargers and USA’s most successful cricketing export, has said he believes cricket can become ‘extremely successful’ in his homeland if the current administration could ’embrace change’.USA has very little to boast about on the international cricket stage, having won just a single game at the World Twenty20 qualifiers but in Young they have someone who belongs to cricket’s most elite circles. A former baseball coach, Young became Australia’s fielding coach under Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting before doing a stint alongside Gary Kirsten with India and is now with the Deccan Chargers at the IPL.Despite his success abroad, he keeps a close eye on developments back in USA. “What most people involved in cricket in the USA don’t know is that I’ve followed the progress very closely. The difficulties have been there for many years but I have always believed, and still do, that cricket in the USA can become extremely successful quickly,” he told .Lalit Modi has publicly stated his ambitions to take the IPL to USA and, before his financial empire crumbled, Alan Stanford was very keen on taking the shorter form to America. Young too believes Twenty20 can draw fans to the game in the USA but feels better coaching infrastructure is pivotal to generating sustained development of the game.”With the surge in interest for Twenty20 exploding worldwide, my belief has increased many times over. It will only happen, though, through the implementation of creative and futuristic coaching programs and leadership. With all due respect to those hard working coaches in the USA at present, they are not in the position to take the sport to the next level. This is no fault of their own it’s just a lack of professional background and resources. The bottom line is if the USACA [USA Cricket Association] truly wants to have an impact on the world scene and wants to grow its label in the USA, then it needs outside professional input in order to do so.”Despite coaching at the highest level for many years, Young would welcome an opportunity to help with USA cricket and feels he has plenty to offer. “My heartfelt passion has been and still is cricket in the USA. If the opportunity comes up to be involved in some capacity within the USACA, I will be very interested. I sincerely believe that my upbringing in the USA [ in Chicago] and my background in professional baseball puts me in a very unique position both culturally and from a sport’s perspective in order to do so.”For that to happen, however, he said there need to be a change of approach from the USACA. “The future for the USACA can be exceptionally bright but only if the willingness is there from their end to embrace change and accept the challenges with a positive and proactive mindset.”

Kenyon replaces long-serving Lisa Pursehouse as club finalise details of Trent Rockets deal

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Oct-2025County champions Nottinghamshire have appointed Richard Kenyon, who has spent the last decade working in commercial and communications roles at Everton Football Club, as their new chief executive.Kenyon will take over from Lisa Pursehouse, who announced her intention to step down earlier this year and has now left the club after 14 seasons in the role. Her last week at the club coincided with their first Championship title since 2010, which was clinched with victory over Warwickshire at Trent Bridge in the final round of fixtures.During his 11 years at Everton, Kenyon worked in various marketing and communications roles, including three-and-a-half years as chief commercial and communications officer, and served as chief executive of the charity Everton in the Community. Notts said that he had played an “instrumental role” in the club’s move from Goodison Park to the new Hill Dickinson Stadium.Related

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Kenyon’s appointment comes at a time when Notts are preparing to assume operational control of Trent Rockets in the Hundred. An announcement in the completion of their £40 million deal with Cain International and Ares Management is imminent, with Notts retaining a 51% controlling stake in the new joint-venture.Andy Hunt, Notts’ chair, said that Kenyon’s experience at Everton made him the standout candidate: “His leadership at Everton spanned critical areas including commercial strategy, global brand development, major infrastructure projects, and multi-stakeholder consultation – all directly relevant to the current and future ambitions of our club.”Kenyon described his appointment as “a tremendous privilege”. He said: “It’s a great credit to the outgoing CEO and her team that I’ll be joining a club in such a strong position. I can’t wait to get started later this year and look forward to working closely with the general committee, the executive team, and our members to make the most of the opportunities that lie ahead for this great club and all of its teams.”Michael Temple, Notts’ commercial director, will serve as interim chief executive before Kenyon takes up his new role in December.Several counties are changing their chief executives over the 2025-26 winter. Emma White, who has previously worked in rugby union and horse racing, has replaced Sean Jarvis at Leicestershire, while Kent’s chief operating officer Nimmo Reid will fill the role on an interim basis while the club search for a successor to Simon Storey. Sussex’s Pete Fitzboyden has also stepped down after two seasons for personal reasons.

Australia batter signs to play with new Freedom coach Ricky Ponting despite a heavy workload in 2024

Alex Malcolm15-Apr-2024Travis Head has elected not to rest following the T20 World Cup and will instead join Steven Smith to play in Major League Cricket’s second season after signing with Washington Freedom.Head, who is currently playing in the IPL with Sunrisers Hyderabad, was clearly fatigued at the end of the Australian summer having required a rest during the home white-ball series against West Indies in February before another four months of non-stop cricket which included the tour of New Zealand, the IPL and the T20 World Cup.Related

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Head has chosen to continue his 2024 playing odyssey by signing with Freedom, just a week after Smith joined the franchise. Australia does not have any international commitments after the T20 World Cup until a white-ball tour of England in September.Head and Smith will play under Freedom’s new coach, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting after he recently replaced Greg Shipperd.Freedom recently announced the signing of New Zealand allrounder Rachin Ravindra. They retained two overseas players from the 2023 season in Marco Jansen and Akeal Hosein.Head joins Smith, Adam Zampa (Los Angeles Knight Riders), Spencer Johnson (Knight Riders), Tim David (MI New York), Matt Short (San Franciso Unicorns) and Jake Fraser-McGurk (San Franciso Unicorns) as confirmed Australian signings for the second season of MLC, with more expected to join for the tournament which starts immediately after the T20 World Cup in the USA and West Indies ends on June 29.

NZ batter heads back to Trent Bridge after helping Rockets to Hundred title last year

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Jan-2023Colin Munro has signed for Notts Outlaws as an overseas player for the 2023 Vitality Blast.Munro, the 35-year-old left-handed top-order batter from New Zealand, was part of the Trent Rockets team which won the men’s Hundred title in 2022.He has three centuries from 62 T20I innings with a career strike-rate of 156.44, and has represented New Zealand on 123 occasions across all formats. Munro is also the 12th-highest run-scorer in T20 history, having scored 9,195 runs.”I’ve witnessed first-hand how much the crowd get behind the team with the Rockets last summer and when I’ve been fortunate, or unfortunate, to come up against the Outlaws at home,” Munro said. “I’m joining a team which plays an aggressive brand of cricket which suits my style and how I like to go about scoring runs. I want to come in and add my experience to what is already a well-oiled machine.”Related

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Munro scored 206 runs in nine matches for Trent Rockets last season at an average of 41.2 and strike rate of 168.85. In addition to The Hundred and previous stints in county cricket with Hampshire and Worcestershire, Durban-born Munro has IPL, PSL, Big Bash and CPL experience, with titles in the latter two tournaments and a total of 365 short-format appearances around the world.Peter Moores, Nottinghamshire’s head coach, described Munro as “a quality player”.”We’ve spoken a lot about Dan [Christian] and what he brought to us; experience, quality and a positive and dynamic style of play,” Moores said. “I see Colin in the same bracket. He’s got his game sorted, he’s played T20 cricket all around the world and he will complement the likes of Alex Hales at the top of the order.”We’re conscious of the fact that Ben [Duckett] has done really well for England and there’s more than a fair chance that we’ll miss him for parts of the summer. That’s one of the reasons we wanted to bring Colin in, to make sure we have that wealth of experience to call upon.”Christian, who won the Blast with Notts Outlaws in 2017 and 2020 as part of a glittering global T20 career, recently announced that he would retire from cricket at the end of Sydney Sixers’ current BBL campaign. Duckett, meanwhile, returned to the reckoning with England’s Test and T20 sides late last year.

Shahzad, Rajapaksa romp to victory after Bopara, Munaf star with ball

Aadam Patel29-Nov-2021Chennai Braves 114 for 0 (Rajapaksa 55*, Shahzad 54*) beat Northern Warriors 108 (Bopara 2-6) by ten wicketsEleven days and 26 games later, the Chennai Braves finally got themselves their first win of the Abu Dhabi T10, at the ninth time of asking.”Better late than never,” as player of the match, Bhanuka Rajapaksa said post-match. They had the Sri Lankan to thank as he notched up his third half-century of the tournament with 55 not out off just 23 deliveries. Alongside the always-entertaining Mohammad Shahzad, who hit 54 not out off 29 balls, the pair ensured that the Braves got their first points on the board.Of course, it was all a little too late. After eight consecutive defeats, the Braves looked all but destined to end their first experience at the Abu Dhabi T10 without a win to their name. Without Nicholas Pooran – their icon player – throughout the tournament, the Braves have lacked match-winners and an injury to Yusuf Pathan certainly didn’t help.Angelo Perera, handed the captaincy midway through the tournament, praised two of their more experienced players in Ravi Bopara and Munaf Patel for orchestrating their win, as Northern Warriors were bowled out for 108. It was the first time that the Braves had managed to take more than five wickets in an innings.From the moment Curtis Campher trapped the devastating Kennar Lewis for a golden duck, the Braves looked like a team determined to end their hoodoo thus far. Campher had Moeen Ali caught at deep backward square leg, just as he was getting going and despite the tournament top scorer, Rovman Powell smashing young Englishman, Roman Walker, for three sixes in the seventh over, Shanaka got the West Indian in the next, Powell sending one straight to Campher in the deep.With the very next ball, Shanaka dismissed Umair Ali and after Bopara picked up two wickets in the penultimate over. It was left to Dhananjaya Lakshan to get rid of Imran Tahir, before Oshane Thomas was run out with a ball to spare.”A lot of credit goes to the bowling unit and also, we had a good outing in the field,” said Perera. “Yes, it was frustrating [to be winless], but today we had a different plan and Ravi and Munaf took the responsibility of talking to the bowlers and their experience has shown today. I think they executed the plan really well.”In their previous three matches, the Braves had managed totals of 107, 89 & 57, so chasing 109 was never going to be a walk in the park. However Rajapaksa and Shahzad got the job done in style. After a tight first over from Tahir, Shahzad let loose with five boundaries off Abhimanyu Mithun in the second. Together, the pair picked away at the total, sucking the energy out of the Warriors – who knew that they also had no chance of progressing to the play-offs.There was still 21 needed off three overs when Oshane Thomas was brought back into the attack. Thomas has had a fascinating tournament thus far, picking up the only hat-trick of the T10 in his first game, before returning the worst figures in T10 history with 0 for 50 in his two overs against Team Abu Dhabi. Yet, he came back from that, with three wickets the following night against the Deccan Gladiators.Related

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However, Rajapaksa ensured that this was another night to forget for the West Indian, who after getting run-out for a duck, was dispatched by the Sri Lankan for 20 in his second over. With a majestic drive over the sweeper cover, the 30-year-old brought up his fifty in style.And it was left for Shahzad to bring up his half-century too with a six, which also sealed the win. Between them, the pair hit 15 fours and six sixes and at long last, the Chennai outfit had some points on the table and something to shout about.”When I was batting with Shazy [Shahzad], I can’t really run so it’s really a case of see ball, hit ball,” said Rajapaksa. “I guess it worked tonight!”As the league stage of the tournament comes to a conclusion with just four games remaining, the four play-off spots have already been decided. Team Abu Dhabi, Deccan Gladiators, Bangla Tigers and Delhi Bulls will make up the sides ready to battle it out over two play-off days on Friday and Saturday. It remains to be seen which two sides will finish as the top two and thus have two bites of the cherry, as they look to make the final of the Abu Dhabi T10.In the earlier game, Liam Livingstone smashed a brutal 59 off 24 to help Team Abu Dhabi reclaim top spot, as they edged out Deccan Gladiators by eight runs.

‘You wouldn’t cheer if an ASDA shut down and people lost their jobs,’ Yorkshire leg-spinner says

Valkerie Baynes03-May-2020For Katie Levick, the Women’s Hundred represents a chance to prove what might have been.Having turned her back on a potential international career for financial reasons when she was 21, Yorkshire leg-spinner Levick was among the first domestic players chosen for a Northern Superchargers squad captained by England’s Lauren Winfield and featuring Australian star Alyssa Healy.But the now 28-year-old Levick is among those who stand to be hardest hit by the postponement of the inaugural Hundred season to 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. With no central contract to fall back on, her ability to earn some money playing the sport she loves has been put on hold for a year, after which she hopes to be injury-free and that “the team still wants me”.Negotiations are continuing over the make-up of squads for next year and it was against a backdrop of uncertainty that Levick was stunned by the reaction on social media to the ECB’s announcement last week that the competition launch would be delayed. Suggestions that some people would not be sorry to see the competition postponed or even scrapped prompted Levick to post a plea for sensitivity on Twitter.”Just seeing the sea of negativity against the competition and how people were so happy, I thought, can you just take a step back and have a bit of perspective? This actually affects people and it affects their jobs,” Levick told ESPNcricinfo. “You wouldn’t cheer if an ASDA shut down and people lost their jobs, so this is no different essentially.” Levick is quick to point out that, given the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak, putting the Hundred back a year is “insignificant really in the grand scheme of things”. She does feel, however, that the women’s game will be affected more heavily than the men’s, given the limited opportunities for women not centrally contracted by the ECB to make money from cricket and the tournament’s potential to attract girls to the sport.Former England spinner Alex Hartley, who lost her central contract last year told BBC Sport: “I am missing out on a significant amount of money that I was relying on to support myself … you might see me stacking toilet roll in Tesco by the end of the summer if no cricket is played because I will have no job.”Levick, the all-time leading wicket-taker in the Women’s County Championship, considers herself fortunate in that she has a full-time job as marketing manager for Yorkshire County Cricket Club’ s coaching company, Pro Coach Yorkshire. Nevertheless, she had dared to dream about the financial and sporting opportunities the Hundred presented this year.”You don’t know what people’s circumstances are going to be next year, I could get injured before the next tournament, and then that’s probably my career over,” she said. “If people do get a job opportunity it means, ‘right, I can’t take it on next year’.”It was more money than I’d ever earned for cricket. I bought my first home at the end of last year, so knowing that then I signed my contract for the Hundred, you had plans, that money was going to be able to help me do up my house and maybe have a holiday once in my life.”So as daft as it sounds that you never had the money, you do make plans for it because of course you do, you’re only human and it does help you keep going.”ALSO READ: Where now for the Hundred following ECB postponement?Levick has been here before, in a way. Having trained for 12 months with the England Academy, she had to make the decision upon finishing university to pursue a career off the field. With central contracts still two years away, she simply could not afford to wait on the off chance she may eventually become one of the chosen few to make a living from playing.”I’m coming towards the end of my career and the Super League has just been the best experience I’ve had in cricket because you got the opportunity to play against the internationals and play on a bit of a stage where we were getting televised games and a bit more promotion,” Levick said.”With the Hundred we were going to be aligned with the men, so that’s a whole other level of publicity we were going to get and some of the stadiums we were due to play at, and the free-to-air TV games, that was going to take the game to another level and put us on a platform that we hadn’t been on before.”I’ve used the Super League and hopefully the Hundred as a way to prove that I could have done it at the next level and prove it against the top players.”Katie Levick training at the National Cricket Performance Centre in 2012•Getty Images

Levick believes some opposition to the Hundred stems from the fact it moves away from a county model to a regional one, but she struggles to understand the reasoning.”People are so purist at counties, you know, live and die by your county,” Levick said. “I just found it weird that as a sports fan, you’re putting so much onus on the team names and where the teams are located. Can’t you support a player? I might not be wearing a Yorkshire badge but I’m still very much from Yorkshire.”If you watch a football team, I reckon 90 percent of my hometown football team aren’t from Sheffield but I still support that team. I think it’s just trying to look at it from a different perspective and just take off your county goggles maybe and enjoy the spectacle.”

Richard Pybus and Trevor Bayliss in agreement about potency of squad, despite lowly world ranking

George Dobell in Grenada25-Feb-2019West Indies can cause a shock – and perhaps even win – the World Cup, according to the England and West Indies coaches.While West Indies’ recent record is not promising – they have not won a bilateral ODI series since 2014, have won only two of their last
seven completed ODIs and are currently ranked No. 9 in the world – the coaches of both sides in the current series in the Caribbean believe
they are a fast-improving, dangerous side who could beat “anyone on their day”.”I know the right West Indies combination with a fully focussed side can beat anyone on their day,” Richard Pybus, West Indies’ interim coach, said. “I wasn’t at the World Cup qualifiers but, with the group of guys we have now, we feel confident could take down anyone on their day.”Key to West Indies’ improved confidence is the return of several high-profile players. Darren Bravo returned in December, Chris Gayle returned for this series – and has responded with a century and half-century – while Andre Russell is expected to return for the fourth ODI in Grenada on Wednesday. As a result, West Indies look as if they have the firepower to damage more opponents.”The West Indies have been playing some decent cricket over the last 18 months,” Trevor Bayliss, the England coach, agreed. “With the size of their batters and the way some of them hit the ball they can be a chance of winning that World Cup.”While he was unable to confirm whether Gayle had done enough to cement his place as opener at the World Cup, Pybus did say he had made a “very resounding case” and defended his somewhat careful starts in each of the first two ODIs.”I can’t speak on behalf of the selectors but I think Chris has put forward a very resounding case,” Pybus said. “He’s just class really. It’s always great having guys in your side who are a bit scary for the opposition who know full well what they can deliver.”In those first two games, Chris was getting a feel for a spongy wicket batting first. It can be a game of two halves in Barbados. He was playing himself through. But, as we have all seen in T20, he can attack that first powerplay brutally. On good wickets he’ll be going hard pretty early.”