Gooch urges England to go one better and win final
England batting coach Graham Gooch believes Andrew Strauss's men can
succeed where he failed as a player and win the World Cup.
The former England captain enjoyed a distinguished and lengthy career
as an opening batsman, helping win a couple of Ashes series and posting
the Test record score at Lord's of 333 against India in 1990. But he
also became the answer to a somewhat unkind quiz question: name the one
England player who appeared in all three of their losing World Cup
finals in three different decades?
"Winning a World Cup didn't happen for me," said Gooch, beaten in
finals against the West Indies (1979), Australia (1987) and Pakistan
(1992).
"I hope this team have got it within them to win the World Cup - and
I'm convinced they have," added Gooch, brought back into the national
set-up by head coach Andy Flower.
Gooch said it was England's spirit that had impressed him most in a
see-saw group phase where they tied with India and beat South Africa yet
lost to both Ireland and Bangladesh. They also came back from the brink
of defeat against the West Indies in a match they had to win to reach
the quarter-finals. "They've come through this first stage of the
competition, shown their fighting qualities and their resilience," added
Gooch. "We can get better, and if we do we have as good a chance as
anyone else.
"The objective was to get into the knockout stages. We've made that;
we've scraped through. We're not going to look back; we're going to look
forward to the next challenge." That sees England facing Sri Lanka in
the last eight on the co-hosts' own turf in Colombo on Saturday. Sri
Lanka, who boast dynamic batsmen in Tillakaratne Dilshan and captain
Kumar Sangakkara, as well as slingshot seamer Lasith Malinga and
off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, have been tipped to repeat their 1996
World Cup triumph. AFP
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