BY VINODE MAMCHAN

Stand-in West Indies captain on their recent tour of South Africa, Dwayne Bravo is blaming injuries, as one of the major reasons the West Indies went down to South Africa.

The West Indies cricket team returned from South Africa on Tuesday following their 2-1 Test series loss, after winning the opening match. They drew the Twenty/20 series 1-1 after winning the first match and also received a whitewash going under 5-0 in the Standard Bank limited overs series.

Bravo said, “We were unfortunate in that there were injuries to many of our key players and this really hampered us down there. We have no control of this, so we just had to do what we could have in the situation.

“I think that the players who competed there did well and one must recognised this.”

Skipper Chris Gayle had to leave the tour after injuring his left hamstring and a broken finger. Batting mainstay Shivnarine Chanderpaul was in and out of the team due to various injuries. There were also injuries that affected Bravo himself, preventing him from bowling in the third Test. Barbadian speedster Fidel Edwards and Jamaican Jerome Taylor, also suffered injuries during the tour.

Looking at his captaincy on tour, Bravo said, “I thought that I did well with the captaincy. What was really pleasing to me was the fact that the senior players all supported me during the tour. Chanderpaul, Marlon Samuels and Denesh Ramdin came to me over and over with advice and this was really good.”

Looking ahead Bravo said he is looking to do well against Sri Lanka and Australia in the Caribbean.

“We, as professional players, know what has to be done in order to be ready for those tours and we are going to be preparing ourselves to battle hard.

“Currently there is a lot of cricket being played in the West Indies and the players have no excuses, as far as not having ideal preparations is concerned. Sri Lanka and Australia are obviously up there at the top of the rankings but once we play to our potential, we can give them a real fight.

“We are playing at home and this would be an advantage to us. The key for us in the series would be to remain competitive and take it from there.”