Dwayne Bravo has denied that West Indies’ acrimonious win over Australia will have a lasting effect on relationships between the two sets of players.
“We are all professional cricketers. They want to win and they will do whatever it takes to try and get a win. Sometimes, we use it for motivation and some other teams retaliate. We are not a side that retaliates. We try and be expressive on the cricket field,” he said here on Sunday.The two teams share the same hotel in Dhaka, and chat with members of the rival camp had been amicable, Bravo revealed.
“We see each other in the lobby. Obviously that happened in the field. Today morning, I was having a chat with Haddin, Finch and Warner about the Big Bash League. Speaking for myself, we are all good friends off the cricket field. I play a lot with them in the Big Bash. That game was really heated,” he said. Twenty20 leagues the world over had brought players closer, Bravo felt. He held up the ties between Indian and West Indian players, which were immensely close, as an example. “Look at the India-West Indies games, the relationship is like one love and it’s like one country playing. Thanks to the IPL, it allows that,” he said.The West Indies players had only a short party at the hotel, according to Bravo, but the day ahead was tinged with sadness as the news of a young Trinidad and Tobago cricketer’s death filtered through.
Tevin Robertson, a 19-year-old fast bowler, died in a car crash in Trinidad in the early hours of Saturday morning. “We are in shock; we can’t actually believe that a life has gone just like that,” said Bravo, a Trinidadian.
“He was very friendly, very polite and a young player coming around the national team. It’s the second cricketer in two years that we have lost in an accident after Runako Morton. We had him in our prayers this morning and if we win this event, we will dedicate it to him.”
