	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP

March 14, 2015

Jason Holder

NAPIER, NEW ZEALAND

Q. Obviously you can't afford to have a draw tomorrow. Weather seems promising, although there's a chance of rain. The idea will be to get the job done short and sweetly.
JASON HOLDER: Well, yeah. Obviously we just need to win this game. It's a must-win game for us. Obviously if the weather plays, it's beyond our control, but we just need to control what we can control, and that's the game. If we can wrap it up as quickly as possible, that's a plus for us, but we still need to cover our bases and just go into the game as a normal game and not try to play the weather.

Q. Is Chris Gayle fit?
JASON HOLDER: Yeah, everybody is fit and everybody is ready to go, so we have a full compliment of players to choose from tomorrow.

Q. Jason, one of the things that the UAE have shown through this tournament is that they can be pretty stubborn; they don't tend to give their wickets away too easily and they bowl in pretty disciplined lines. Is run rate going to come in at all, and if it does, how are you going to look to make sure that you can push them as hard as you possibly can so that you win with enough runs to leapfrog Ireland or Pakistan if you have to?
JASON HOLDER: Well, it's a good question. Obviously UAE is an international team in this tournament and we don't expect them to be a walkover. Having said that, we just need to control what we can. There's no point rushing the game and trying to force a result as quickly as possible. Obviously it's ideal that we probably wrap it up as quickly as possible, but we still have to play the cricket, and to win it on merit is the best way to do it. I don't think we should think too far ahead but we should take it stage by stage and just try to come out with a win, which is most important.

Q. Did you expect to come to the last group game of the tournament in this situation where you now need to win, and are you a bit irritated you didn't secure your place earlier, and just how good do you think your chances are of even going further than the quarterfinals?
JASON HOLDER: Well, ideally I think any team would love to have qualified by now, heading into the quarterfinals stage, but it's not the case here for us. We've been a little up and down in the tournament, but having said that, I have full confidence in the guys to come up tomorrow and produce what is needed. Again, I can't really look back and say, well, we've been horrible here, we've been horrible there. It's cricket. It's the way the game goes. You win some, you lose some. But what is important is that we forget about the past, learn from it and just focus all of our energies into this game tomorrow. It's quite important for us, and the better we do in this game tomorrow, the better chances we stand of qualifying into the quarterfinals.

Q. Just in terms of your team selection, UAE were quite stunned when South Africa attacked them with a lot of short balls and that kind of thing. Would you look at something like an all-pace attack and kind of try and bounce them out or scare them out?
JASON HOLDER: Well, looking at the combination from the last game, obviously our bowlers did well in the last game. We'll start to look at the conditions here today. I haven't seen the conditions yet because this is the first time I'm coming to the grounds, so we'll just make an assessment there and just decide what we come up with tomorrow. But I think what is important is that whatever 11 we put on the field we just be aggressive. Obviously they seem to not like the aggressive stuff, so it's in our nature to be aggressive and we just need to be aggressive and play aggressive cricket.

Q. And personally how has it gone? It's a massive event for you as a young captain and you only had the South Africa series before this as a leader. How have you found it? How have you enjoyed it and what have you learnt?
JASON HOLDER: I'll tell you what, I've learnt a few things not only about myself but the game in general. It's been good for me. It's been a very good challenge, something that I was looking forward to from the time I was a youngster. But being thrown into it now has opened up my eyes in a lot of ways. I'm just pleased the way I've handled it. I think I've put up my hand on a few occasions and led from the front, which is ideal. It would be fitting just to just qualify tomorrow and just progress further into the tournament. But personally for me it's been good and it's been challenging, which I expected it to be, but having said that, it's nothing that I guess I didn't expect.

Q. Has it been quite difficult to hear what people from the outside have said? You had a Brian Lara really endorse you as a captain and then other guys saying people must rally around you and step up a bit more. Are you shutting that out or are you taking it in?
JASON HOLDER: Yeah, you would get criticism in anything you do. I know some people are for it and some people are against it. That's life. What I can't do is dwell on it. I can't let it get to me. I think what is important is I just focus on what is required of me, and what is required of me is to lead this team and lead it to the best of my ability. If I get too caught up with what people say, then you get sidetracked by unnecessary stuff. For me it's been there, I've heard it, I've seen it. It hasn't really fazed me. I've just been focused on what I have to do.

Q. And Cyclone Pam, I know you said you can't control the weather, but is it on your mind at all just in terms of what it could do to the tournament?
JASON HOLDER: It's not on my mind at all. Again, I can't play the weather. If it comes, it comes. If it doesn't, we just need to do what's required of us.

Q. Mohammad Tauqir said that UAE now can play with a bit more freedom. Does that make them a more dangerous opponent in the context of West Indies needing to win and win well tomorrow?
JASON HOLDER: All I want to say is we're making them dangerous in a sense. I think we can play with as freedom as we possibly can, too. I think that's when we're at our best; when we free up, we play the brand of cricket which we are accustomed to playing. Hopefully tomorrow I can ask the guys just to free up and play the cricket. I think what is important is that we just be aggressive. I think aggression is the key but not getting too carried away with it, just be smart and aggressive, and I think once we do that, we should get the result we're looking for.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297