Steven Taylor on USA - West Indies Super8's
20/06/2024
Kensington Oval, Bridgetown
20/06/2024
Kensington Oval, Bridgetown
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00She's expecting that the USA team will come to Barbados and give a good account of yourselves.
00:04Are you looking forward to the challenge?
00:06Of course. We played against West Indies in Zimbabwe, I think it was last year,
00:10in the 50 over ICC qualifiers for World Cup.
00:13And we came close. We lost by about 10 runs. I think it was 15 to 17 runs.
00:19And we gave them a fight at the end of the day.
00:21And we know that we have a chance of beating them once we play good cricket on the day.
00:25Just wondering, Stephen, for starters, you came into the Super 8s.
00:35Probably people thought you were lucky to get into the Super 8s
00:39and you were there to make up the numbers at Pakistan's expense.
00:43Do you think what you've shown so far has proven that that's not the case?
00:48Of course. I would say we're playing good cricket and the team is gelling well together
00:54and at the end of the day, we know that we're going to be the underdogs
00:57for all teams that we play against in the Super 8s.
00:59So we're just here to play good cricket and if we go in, we win. If we lose, we lose.
01:04Obviously, with your own parents' heritage, Jamaica, all of that,
01:09now coming back and playing against West Indies in Barbados,
01:12what does that mean to you personally?
01:15It's a good challenge, as much as I used to sing the song Rally,
01:21growing up as a kid, but at the end of the day, I'm representing my real country
01:24where I was born and grown and I just hope that we can come over the line against West Indies.
01:29When you're out there in the team line-up, are you going to sing both?
01:34I did last time, but in my head.
01:39What advantages has that been given?
01:41Because you played all the games in the US on pitches that were completely different conditions,
01:46that were very different to what's here in the Caribbean and the various islands.
01:51So how much of a role have you and Aaron in particular played
01:54in trying to help the other guys work out particularly how to bowl to destructive batters?
02:01Yeah, I said the bowling part would be the most hard part
02:04because we've been coming from pick wickets,
02:07that was helping more conducive for the bowlers and things like that.
02:09So at the end of the day, we just have to work on our game, the bowlers as more,
02:13because I think the batters are loving the conditions here in the West Indies,
02:16because normally it's good wickets to bat on.
02:18But at the end of the day, it's good wickets, so bowlers have to come up strong.
02:22So whoever bowls the best mostly will win the game.
02:26Looking forward to taking on in that West Indies side?
02:31Akeem Hussain.
02:32Oh, that didn't take long. Why Akeem?
02:35Good friend of mine, we played tridents together in CPL for two years,
02:38I know most of his tricks, so for sure I'll be hunting him first of all.
02:45Just on that, the belief that, and you've been around this team for quite a while,
02:50has there been a USA dressing room with more belief than this one?
02:54Just the way you nearly chased down today's target?
02:58Yeah, I've been in dressing rooms with more belief.
03:01Maybe it's a little bit more talent, but we just never had the preparation.
03:04But now that we have the preparation and more funding is coming in,
03:07the team is more gelling together and is heading in the right direction as a team itself.
03:14There's always talk of when it's an associate team, at whatever level,
03:19there's talk of don't get overawed by who you're playing against,
03:22but have you, just looking around, like you said, you've played with a lot of them in the past,
03:27but just looking around the dressing room, do you see nobody's overawed?
03:30Everybody is just believing in themselves, backing themselves?
03:33Yeah, I agree, I agree, because most of us, well, not most of us,
03:36most of the guys in the team came from a Pakistani or Indian dressing room
03:40and they played with one of the big ones already.
03:42So playing against these guys to us right now is just another game to us.
03:47And just to go back to what it means to you to play the West Indies in a World Cup game in the Caribbean,
03:54and while I'm sure you'll be singing it again in your head,
03:57can you just elaborate a little more on that?
04:01It's a wonderful feeling, representing my parents, my Jamaican heritage.
04:06At the end of the day, I might be born American, but I speak more Jamaican than I speak American sometimes.
04:12So it's a great feeling playing against West Indies, growing up, watching Lara, Chris Gales, all the big fans,
04:17and to have the chance of playing against them now in a World Cup stage, on a high stage of life,
04:22I might beat them. It might be a great feeling. It's a great feeling.
04:26And just finally, speaking of your Jamaican heritage, there are a few big-name Jamaicans in that West Indian team.
04:33Someone like Andre Russell, was he someone you kind of...
04:37I play with him most days.
04:38Yeah, I know.
04:39I wouldn't say look up to him, but he's more of a big brother to me as well. Yeah, for sure.
04:43Thank you.
04:46Yeah, just sort of picking up on Bharat's question there,
04:51USA and the national team have bounced around the World Cricket League for a long time, Division III, Division II.
04:59In terms of the journey, now that you are here at a World Cup, I know there's more to do,
05:03but when, say in five years' time, when you look back on this and the rest of the journey,
05:09how do you kind of sum it up?
05:11How special is it to come and reach this moment after all those years of relative obscurity?
05:18It's actually a great feeling, because actually being a co-host of the World Cup itself,
05:22playing games in our hometown, people actually chanting your name, Taylor, Taylor, or Jesse, or Aaron,
05:27like people who were actually born in the USA.
05:29And to play cricket in your hometown, that same thing as a World Cup, is the biggest stage of life.
05:34So it would never get better than that.
05:39Thank you.