The West Indies open the defence of their World Twenty20 title on Sunday confident they posses the requisite firepower to deliver another successful campaign in Bangladesh.
Darren Sammy’s men tore apart the form book when they stunned hosts Sri Lanka in the final of the previous edition in Colombo two years ago, giving cricket in the Caribbean a massive lift.
Sammy, speaking ahead of the Group 2 Super-10 clash against India in Dhaka, said a more experienced West Indies boasts of players ideally suited to dominate in the slam-bang format.
“If we play to our full potential, we can be a real destructive force,” said the skipper, who leads players like the explosive batsman Chris Gayle and star spinner Sunil Narine.
“We’ve got a lot of experienced players who play Twenty20 cricket all over the world, like Gayle, Narine and Dwayne Bravo. We have a great balance in the squad.”
Sammy said Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Indians, who thumped Pakistan by seven wickets in the Super-10 opener on Friday, were no strangers to his players since they played together in the Indian Premier League.
“We have a general idea of the Indians because guys have been in the same dressing room as them during the IPL,” he said. “Anyway in this age, there is footage to be seen everywhere.
“You can watch a player’s match and come up with a successful formula to stop him.”
Sammy expected a keen contest on Sunday, saying his team were eager to start the tournament on a winning note.
“The good thing in our team is that we don’t have to rely on any one person. We have at least five or six potential match-winners,” he said.
“But everyone has to contribute. You may have a brilliant team, but it takes a total team effort to win.
“It is not going to be easy to win the tournament again. We have to focus on each team. But tomorrow it is all about India and our energies are focused on them.”
Pakistan, Australia and Bangladesh are the other teams in the group, from which two will advance to the semi-finals.
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Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
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More Iraq election coverage:
How to invest in gold
Investors can tap into the gold price by purchasing physical jewellery, coins and even gold bars, but these need to be stored safely and possibly insured.
A cheaper and more straightforward way to benefit from gold price growth is to buy an exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Most advisers suggest sticking to “physical” ETFs. These hold actual gold bullion, bars and coins in a vault on investors’ behalf. Others do not hold gold but use derivatives to track the price instead, adding an extra layer of risk. The two biggest physical gold ETFs are SPDR Gold Trust and iShares Gold Trust.
Another way to invest in gold’s success is to buy gold mining stocks, but Mr Gravier says this brings added risks and can be more volatile. “They have a serious downside potential should the price consolidate.”
Mr Kyprianou says gold and gold miners are two different asset classes. “One is a commodity and the other is a company stock, which means they behave differently.”
Mining companies are a business, susceptible to other market forces, such as worker availability, health and safety, strikes, debt levels, and so on. “These have nothing to do with gold at all. It means that some companies will survive, others won’t.”
By contrast, when gold is mined, it just sits in a vault. “It doesn’t even rust, which means it retains its value,” Mr Kyprianou says.
You may already have exposure to gold miners in your portfolio, say, through an international ETF or actively managed mutual fund.
You could spread this risk with an actively managed fund that invests in a spread of gold miners, with the best known being BlackRock Gold & General. It is up an incredible 55 per cent over the past year, and 240 per cent over five years. As always, past performance is no guide to the future.
TOURNAMENT INFO
Fixtures
Sunday January 5 - Oman v UAE
Monday January 6 - UAE v Namibia
Wednesday January 8 - Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 - Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 - UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia
UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid, Darius D’Silva, Karthik Meiyappan, Jonathan Figy, Vriitya Aravind, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Basil Hameed, Chirag Suri
