West Indies on Aussie shores to take back what is theirs

West Indies had won the T20 World Cup in 2016. In 2018, when the competition was played in the Caribbean, Australia went on to win the trophy, defeating the hosts in the semi-final. Now, as West Indies step on Aussie-land, taking the cup back home is the only motive for them.

“We’ve come to win this World Cup and take it back from Australia,” said Anisa Mohammed, West Indies’ vice-captain.

“It would be nice to spoil the party. They spoiled ours, so it would be nice to return the favour. Australia have been doing really well. They recently played in the tri-series and came out on top, but we’ve been working hard ourselves. The final in 2016 was a really special day. That was probably the biggest highlight of my career - winning a World Cup is something I’d love to do again. As a team, we know what it’s like to win and what it’s like to lose. Winning is definitely better, so we want to win this time. Australia are known as the top team in the world. All teams will be gunning to beat them.”

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West Indies didn’t have a good 2019 as they were beaten at home by touring Australia and India. Through most of the year, they continued to miss the services of some experienced names in Deandra Dottin, Shakera Selman, Stafanie Taylor as well as Hayley Matthews, who had been banned.

But it’s a full-strength Caribbean squad that has travelled to Australia for the T20 World Cup, which gives Selman the confidence of beating the hosts.

“We have some history with Australia,” said the 30-year-old pacer.

“Since the last series, I’ve noticed a lot of the girls have built some sort of friendship and some sort of camaraderie. They’ve beaten us a few times. They were hurting after we beat them in 2016 and they came back to beat us two years later. It would be a big game if we faced them in the semi-finals but we’ve got to take each one as it comes.”