Hope urges Windies to honour Sobers with ODI turnaround against New Zealand

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — West Indies skipper Shai Hope believes the passing of cricket icon Sir Garfield Sobers can drive his team toward victory in their One-Day International series versus New Zealand.

Sir Garry, a National Hero of Barbados and often hailed as the finest all-rounder the sport has produced, died on Friday. He was 89.

Across 93 Tests for the West Indies between 1954 and 1974, he amassed 8,032 runs at 57.78 and claimed 235 wickets.

Trailing 2-1 in the series, the regional side must take the last two fixtures at Kensington Oval to snatch the rubber. Hope acknowledged that Sobers’ death had left the dressing room subdued, yet he expects the loss to galvanise the players.

“It is a sad one. He has shown what West Indies cricket really means. He’s one of the first legends of the game and really set and paved the way for us all, so I think tomorrow should be a big inspiration for us, a big confidence booster for us.

“I’m not saying that we’re looking at the death to only rise us, but we need to play this one for the great man and hopefully we can get the results that we really want in his honour as well,” Hope said in a pre-match interview yesterday.

Those remaining contests also matter for automatic entry to the 2027 World Cup, Hope noted.

“It’s very important and something we’ve been mentioning for the last few series now is that every single game is very important, especially for what’s at stake. We’ve got a big qualification period, I think these games hold a bit more weight, probably a bit more than the others.

“But we’ve still got to play each game as it comes, we have to ensure that we’re following all of our processes and executing when the time comes,” Hope said.

After three ODIs in Guyana, Hope anticipates a Barbados surface more favourable for batting. Still, he stressed that the West Indies must adjust at once and perform at a high level, whatever the conditions.

“It [the pitch] doesn’t look as though it’s going to be as slow and low, but again, the adaptation needs to happen when the toss flips and when the first ball is bowled.

“We still have to see what’s going to happen. We have a better understanding of the surface here in Barbados, but regardless of how we think it’s going to play, we still have to assess on the day and be ready for whatever challenges we face from an opposition standpoint and from a condition standpoint as well,” Hope said.