West Indies look for the spark through Roach and Bravo

Stuart Williams, stand-in West Indies head coach over the five months since Ottis Gibson was dismissed last August, hopes the return of Darren Bravo and Kemar Roach brings "a different feel to the whole team, maybe the spark that we need in the World Cup".

There can be no doubt that West Indies need "a different feel" and a "spark". Their flame was dimmed to barely a flicker by repercussions from the team's sudden, contentious exit from the tour of India in October, which led to the omission of Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard from the World Cup 15, and by the trouncing in the subsequent ODI series in South Africa.

Sunil Narine, the white-ball spin whiz, would have completed an ideal trio to fit Williams' expectations - key batsman, incisive fast bowler and mesmerising spinner. Instead, he withdrew after being originally selected, still cautious after four months of tweaking an action reported as suspect by three international umpires in the Champions League in India last September. It was another setback, shaking the team's already fragile self-confidence. In the circumstances, any glimmer of encouragement was understandably welcomed.

Williams' optimism that Roach and "Lil" Bravo - as Dwayne's younger brother refers to himself - can make a difference is based on Roach's record as the sharp spearhead of the bowling and Bravo's obvious, if still unfulfilled, quality batting at No. 3, a position that presented one of West Indies' many problems in South Africa.

Returning to international cricket in its most prestigious event is likely to be a telling motivating factor for both. There are differing views regarding the effect the absence of international cricket leading in to such an extended, multi-team tournament would have on the two.

Either Bravo and Roach are fresh and, as they insist, "raring to go", not weighed down by the distress of the thrashing in South Africa, or they are under pressure to immediately respond to tough competition in the game's longest, most prestigious event. Take your pick.

The two warm-ups at the SCG, against England on February 9 and Scotland, one of the four Associates, on February 12, are the only opportunities for them to get going in the middle before their official Group B opener against Ireland, the strongest and most dangerous of the Associates, in Nelson, New Zealand, on February 16.

Bravo's last match for West Indies was the fourth ODI in India before he and his team-mates packed their bags and headed home. He then pulled out of the South Africa tour for "personal reasons", as he had done in New Zealand earlier in the year.

The personal reasons that disrupted his cricket are seemingly behind him. While West Indies were taking a hiding in South Africa, he was back playing in the regional 50-overs tournament in January for the eventual champions, Trinidad and Tobago Red Force. That might have done him more harm than good. Pitches at the main venue, Queen's Park Oval, were condemned by captains and coaches and by the president of the T&T board. The ball deviated at sharp angles for even ordinary spinners. There were 17 totals under 150 in 13 matches. Narine returned staggering figures of 8-3-9-6 against Guyana Jaguars in the final after Jason Mohammed scored the only individual hundred in the nine matches at Queen's Park.

Like everyone else, Bravo found his natural flamboyance stifled by conditions, cobbling together 109 runs in five innings.

The pitches in Australia and New Zealand, both natural and drop-in, won't present Queen's Park's constraints. There were nine hundreds in the 11 lead-up ODIs in Australia, involving South Africa, India and England, 11 in the 12 played by South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in New Zealand.

Grant Elliott and Luke Ronchi, neither of whom features in the New Zealand Test team, became instantly recognisable names in world cricket when they set a new ODI sixth-wicket record of 267, unbeaten, against Sri Lanka.

Brett Lee foresees the World Cup suffering if such flat pitches are produced. "That is last thing we want," he said. Bravo and the other batsmen wouldn't agree; Roach and the bowlers would.

For Bravo it is a chance to reassert himself, on the game's most prominent stage. He promised so much in his initial foray into the highest level that Steve Waugh described him as "world cricket's next superstar, no doubt".

That was three years ago, since when other young superstars in their early or mid-20s have superseded Bravo. Virat Kohli, 26, starts the World Cup ranked No. 3 on the ODI batting list, 12 in Tests; Kane Williamson, 24, is at 6 in both ODIs and Tests; Quinton de Kock, 22, is 10 in ODIs; Joe Root, 24, is at 14 in ODIs, 10 in Tests. None is more naturally gifted than "Lil" Bravo, whose left-handed flair carries the unmistakable stamp of his legendary blood cousin Brian Lara. Ranked 46 in ODIs, 32 in Tests, Bravo has a lot of ground to make up. The World Cup is the ideal stage to start.

Roach's absence has been even longer than Bravo's. Except for 15.5 overs on the first day of the first Test in South Africa in December when he was struck down with his second injury in less than a year, his last match for West Indies was the second Test against Bangladesh in St Lucia last September.

A fractured bone in his shoulder that required surgery ended his tour of India in October even before the eventual abandonment; a right ankle twisted on delivery eliminated him for the remaining Tests and the limited-overs matches in South Africa.

Fit again, he brings with him the pacy, controlled seam movement that has earned him 98 wickets in 64 ODIs at the serviceable runs-per-over rate of 4.90.

Even the most upbeat coach could hardly expect two players alone, no matter how special, to suddenly transform his team from no-hopers to World Cup contenders. Bravo and Roach can only make a significant difference in collaboration with other key players. It involves a proliferation of "ifs".

West Indies' unlikely prospects of going as far as the semi-final for the first time since 1996 depend on whether Chris Gayle finds the fitness and the form for one last, memorable World Cup hurrah, Marlon Samuels sets his sights beyond pretty 70s and 80s, Andre Russell controls his lively bowling and fierce hitting, Jerome Taylor starts taking wickets as he used to, Bravo and Roach match Stuart Williams' hopes, and the team as a whole sheds its traditional inconsistency.

Somehow that seems just too many ifs to allow one to look any further forward than the opening challenge from Ireland.