Dwayne Bravo keeping hopes of playing the 2019 World Cup

Windies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, who is currently absent from the international set-up, is hoping to represent his country in the World Cup 2019. Windies, playing the World Cup qualifiers, have qualified for the event they have won twice. They beat Scotland by five runs in the final of the tournament on Wednesday.

Bravo has not played any games for his national side since 2016, because of issues with the country’s cricket board over his contract. Cricket West Indies (CWI) chairman Courtney Brown had said that Bravo had “indicated that he is no longer available to play cricket for the West Indies”, but this was denied by the all-rounder.

Bravo’s congratulatory message for the Windies

He congratulated his side for qualifying for the World Cup. “First of all, congrats to the team for qualifying. I am happy for the guys. World Cup without the West Indies… I mean there is FIFA World Cup without Italy. These things are possible. No one team or one country are guaranteed anything,” he told reporters.

“It is a young team. The cricketing world loves to see West Indies and love to see West Indies competing with the best. I wish them all the best. Hopefully, I would get to play in the World Cup as well,” the former skipper.

His next major assignment will be the Indian Premier League, in which he will play for the two-time champions Chennai Super Kings under MS Dhoni’s leadership. Bravo also plays in Big Bash League, Pakistan Super League, and Caribbean Premier League. Speaking about the IPL, Bravo said that CSK feels like home to him and that he wanted to be picked by them in the auctions.

“Coming back to CSK is like coming back home for me. We missed the IPL for the last two years. I was following the auction from Australia and I was hoping and praying that I would be picked by CSK. I’m very thankful to the management for showing a lot of faith in me,” Bravo said.

IPL 11 begins on April 7 at the Wankhede stadium, with defending champions Mumbai Indians taking on Chennai in the opener.