GEORGE­TOWN, Guyana — For­mer Guyana open­ing bats­man Kr­ish­na Ar­june be­lieves West In­dies can be crowned cham­pi­ons at the In­ter­na­tion­al Mas­ters Crick­et (IMC) Over-40s World Cup, which Guyana will host from Oc­to­ber 17-31.

Ar­june said the squad looks bal­anced and the pres­ence of a pletho­ra of for­mer West In­dies play­ers has giv­en him con­fi­dence that they could be the cham­pi­on unit.

“I like the side es­pe­cial­ly with so many es­tab­lished play­ers in the squad; glad to see Ramnaresh Sar­wan who had done well for both Guyana and West In­dies,” said Ar­june, who ap­peared in 40 first-class match­es. “These guys will bring a lot of ex­pe­ri­ence, and that will be im­por­tant.”

West In­dies will be cap­tained by for­mer mul­ti-for­mat West In­dies play­er De­nesh Ramdin, and Ar­june ex­pects him to lead from the front.

“He was an ex­cel­lent cap­tain for his coun­try, Trinidad and To­ba­go and the West In­dies, so with a good all-round squad I know he will lead from the front,” Ar­june de­clared.

West In­dies will be­gin their cam­paign against Aus­tralia at the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um, Prov­i­dence. They have been placed in Group A along­side Wales, Cana­da, Colom­bia, Namib­ia, Sri Lan­ka and reign­ing cham­pi­ons South Africa.

Group B com­pris­es New Zealand, Scot­land, Pak­istan, USA, In­dia, Eng­land, Rest of the World X1 and Rest of the Caribbean X1.

Sew­nar­ine Chat­ter­goon, Ja­son Mo­hammed, Rayad Em­rit and De­ven­dra Bishoo are among the oth­er play­ers in the West In­dies squad who have rep­re­sent­ed the re­gion in both Test and ab­bre­vi­at­ed for­mats.

Ar­june added that the re­gion­al side must make the most of home ad­van­tage.

“Yes, this is a big way for them to utilise home con­di­tions and that is a huge plus for West In­dies as well,” he said. “I un­der­stand they will play match­es across Guyana, so that is even bet­ter be­cause most of the guys played enough crick­et in Guyana to know these con­di­tions.”

In ad­di­tion to Prov­i­dence, match­es will be host­ed at Al­bion, Bour­da, Mal­tee­noes, Po­lice Sports Club, Eve Leary, An­na Regi­na Sta­di­um, Joe Jag­mo­han Hamp­ton Court, En­more and Lusig­nan.

The top two teams from each group will ad­vance to the se­mi-fi­nals, while the grand fi­nale is slat­ed for the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um, Prov­i­dence.

This his­toric sec­ond edi­tion of the glob­al event is be­ing run by IMC in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Crick­et West In­dies Mas­ters As­so­ci­a­tion. South Africa are the reign­ing cham­pi­ons af­ter de­feat­ing New Zealand in the 2024 fi­nal in Cape Town.

CMC