Ever since their stunning capture of the ICC Champions Trophy for the first time three years ago in England, there has been widespread optimism in the Caribbean that West Indies could be the first host nation to win the World Cup.

That optimism did not seem misplaced, following their stunning qualification for the final of last year’s Champions Trophy in India, where they were rolled over by Australia.

After all, West Indies’ lowly position on the official ODI rankings had forced them to come through a qualification tournament with Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, and Bangladesh before entering the main draw of the Champions Trophy tournament.

All of this came on the heels of a triumphant run in consecutive home series victories — 5-0 over Zimbabwe and 4-1 over India. Since the Champions Trophy final last October in Mumbai however, Brian Lara’s side has endured something of a slump, losing six of their last eight ODIs in separate series in Pakistan and India.

Injuries to a couple of pivotal players, including Ramnaresh Sarwan, have also hampered their World Cup preparations. But coach Bennett King is optimistic and believes the limited-overs format suits his side perfectly. “The concentration levels are shorter, and this amount of time is quite good, so with that in mind, we’re optimistic,” he said. King indicated that his main focus now is to help his side avoid the kind of catastrophic declines which characterised their performance in the final of the Champions Trophy in India.

“Our bad games tend to be the ones when we don’t score over 150,” he said. “The better sides, their bad games are when they don’t score over 250. We’ve got to work towards this. We’ve been winning games in the one-day format against really good opposition. We’ve just got to maintain that consistency.”

To win the World Cup, West Indies will have to overcome themselves like they did last year, when they won 17 of the 29 matches they played. They won the first two World Cups in 1975 and 1979 in England, but have failed to reach the semi-finals since then.

squad: Brian Lara (captain), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Smith, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Ian Bradshaw, Corey Collymore, Jerome Taylor, Denesh Ramdin, Devon Smith, Lendl Simmons, Daren Powell, Kieron Pollard