Moore harbours high hopes

David Moore © Getty Images

David Moore believes the future of West Indies cricket is bright and urged the region’s up-and-coming talent to step out of the shadow of Brian Lara.

The stand-in coach is confident the Windies have a “nucleus” of players who can help eventually re-establish them as a force on the global stage.

Lara brought down the curtain on a glorious international career after the World Cup and they also lost the services of skipper Ramnaresh Sarwan for most of the tour of England and Ireland through injury.

But Moore sees it as a golden opportunity for the next generation of West Indian cricketers to stand up and be counted as they look to bounce back from the defeat in the opening NatWest Series clash against England at Edgbaston on Wednesday.

He said: “In a sense, we are up against it because we have lost Ramnaresh Sarwan, who is ranked one of the world’s best one-day batsmen, and we have lost Brian Lara as well.

“But it is a case of the younger players having to step forward a bit. I think they have had to. We’ve had no choice.

“Of course, Shivnarine Chanderpaul is always there or thereabouts for us, but there are also people like Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels and Denesh Ramdin who will be able to step forward.

Moore must replace the "genius" that is Brian Lara

“They are coming out of the shadow of a genius [Lara] - and more strength to them if they can take their chance. There is the nucleus of a good team and what people don’t see are the other guys coming through.

“We have got a young boy in Trinidad, 16, who has scored a hundred in first-class cricket. The West Indies Under-19 side very rarely fail to make the semi-finals of the World Youth Cup.

“We have a really good bunch of young talented cricketers who haven’t had the opportunity or haven’t been able to learn their cricket well enough and make the transition to the higher level.

“It is encouraging and in the next five or years those guys should be coming through and gaining opportunities.”

Moore has faith in the squad as they look to recover from Sunday’s 79-run defeat at Lord’s.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul may move up the order this week

He said: “The key to this group is that they are very close, are working hard at their game and are learning from what we have been speaking about in meetings.

“I am confident these guys can actually execute the plans. We have lost a couple of players but we have a nucleus of what we can build upon and they are gaining confidence in their own ability and gaining experience.”

West Indies are considering promoting the prolific Chanderpaul up the order after he ran out of partners batting at number five at Lord’s.

Skipper Gayle said: “It is something we will have to look into, maybe put Shiv higher up the order.

“We will talk about it and we will see what happens. Maybe we can utilise him for more overs by doing that.”

Gayle added: “We can get a good response at Edgbaston. We can bounce back and win the series 2-1. We are up against it but sometimes, when that is the case, we play better cricket.”