Shai Hope leans on WI legend Sobers for advice

SHAI Hope, who made an impressive return to West Indies on Wednesday with a century, said he leaned on West Indies legend Sir Gary Sobers for advice over the past months while he was on a break from international cricket.

Hope cracked 110 to guide West Indies to an eight-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the first CG Insurance 50-Over match of a three-match series at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.

It was the right-hander’s tenth century in One Day International (ODI) cricket.

Hope and West Indies will meet Sri Lanka in the second ODI at the same venue, from 9.30 am, on Friday.

On Thursday, speaking to journalists on Zoom, Hope said, “With the great Sir Garfield Sobers anytime I come in contact with him it is always a pleasure and a special moment for me. I know him for a bit of time now and every conversation that we had was very fruitful.”

Hope has had a tough time since the middle of 2020. After a poor run of form in the West Indies tour of England in June/July he was dropped for the following tour of New Zealand in November/December. Hope then decided not to tour Bangladesh in January/February because of personal fears or covid19 concerns, according to Cricket West Indies.

Shortly before the CG Insurance Super50 tournament bowled off on February 7 in Antigua, Hope tested positive for covid19 and was forced to miss the first three matches for Barbados Pride.

Speaking more about his discussions with Sir Gary, Hope said, “We all know what he has done on the field and just to see the person that he is off the field it just makes me feel a lot better about myself approaching him. I can basically speak about anything as well and he definitely shares all the information that he possibly can. It is a pleasure to be on this earth with him right now and I am thankful for him.”

Reflecting on his time away from cricket, Hope said he continued to believe in himself. “I know it would have been a tough period of time over those last few months, but I always backed myself and my ability to do what I can and I know as long as I stick to my game plan and trust the processes that everything will fall into place.”

Hope said heading into the second ODI West Indies must keep its foot on the gas. “First thing to do would be to not be complacent. We pretty much played one of the best games that we could have played in awhile…we played a very good game yesterday (Wednesday) and it is about identifying things that we can improve on and we expect them to come back a lot stronger than they did in the first game.”