Ex-WI captain appointed bowling consultant for T20 World Cup

The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB)recently confirmed ex-Windies captain Dwayne Bravo’s appointment as a bowling consultant for the June 1-29 T20 World Cup, which is being co hosted by the West Indies and the United States.

“The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) announces the appointment of former West Indian great and T20 World Cup winner Dwayne Bravo as the bowling consultant of the Afghanistan national team for the T20 World Cup 2024,” states a  ACB release.

Bravo is set to join the team during the preparation camp ahead of the marquee event in the Caribbean.”

The Afghans are in St. Kitts and Nevis for a 10-day training camp in the buildup to the World Cup.

Bravo confirmed his new appointment via Instagram saying, “Thank you (to the Afghanistan Cricket Board) for trusting me and giving me the opportunity to work with such a very talented group of players. I look forward to this new challenge and can’t wait to get started.” Bravo played alongside Badree in the West Indies’ runs to the 2012 and 2016 T20 World Cup titles.

Led by ace leg-spinner Rashid Khan, the Afghanistanis are in group C alongside New Zealand, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Uganda and West Indies.

Former Weat Indies spinner and two-time International Cricket Council (ICC) men’s Twenty/20 World Cup winner Samuel Badree said, “I think Dwayne’s appointment by the Afghanistan team is quite a strategic move by them, knowing the experience Dwayne has in TT cricket. He has the most wickets in this format in the history of the game. And of course, he understands the conditions quite well.”

He added that Bravo’s appointment along with PNG’s hiring of former West Indies coach Phil Simmons as a specialist coach ahead of the World Cup, speaks to the homework being done by the varying teams and the inside knowledge they are trying to gather.

Simmons was the coach of the Windies team, which lifted a second T20 World Cup crown in 2016.

Last December, reigning T20 World Cup champions England hired former West Indies captain Kieron Pollard, as an assistant coach for the upcoming World Cup. England are in group B alongside  Australia, Namibia, Oman and Scotland.

The 40-year-old Bravo played 91 T20 matches for the Windies and is considered as one of the pioneers of the T20 game. He played 295 matches in total for the West Indies. Bravo took 363 international wickets across all formats, with 78 of those coming in the T20 format, totalling his number of T20 wickets to 625 in a 19-year span.

Bravo currently serves as the bowling coach for his former Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings.

Afghanistan will begin their campaign against the Uganda in Guyana on June 3. They will then play the Kiwis on June 7 and PNG on June 13, before bringing an end to the tournament’s preliminary round against Sammy’s Windies in St. Lucia on June 17.