The past will mean nothing to the England team when they take on the West Indies in the ICC Champions Trophy final at the Brit Oval today. Twenty-five years ago the same teams faced each other at Lord’s — a few tube stations away — where the Englishmen caved in without a trace of a fight by 92 runs. English skipper Michael Vaughan, though, remembers nothing of that final: ‘‘I was probably five years old and playing on my doorstep. I had no clue of that final’’, he told The Indian Express at The Oval today. Darren Gough, the eldest member of the team at 34, remembers nothing of that epic final either, of the day Sir Vivian Richards slammed a regal 138 and Joel Garner ran through the English side with figures of 5-38. And Andrew Flintoff, the difference between the two sides on Saturday, was just two years old when that match was played to a full house at the cricket headquarters. England will yet again play to a full house on Saturday morning and thankfully this time they will not have to contend with Sir Viv or face Garner. Instead they will have to play a wounded West Indian team, as Lara prefers to describe his players. ‘‘The Englishmen want to leave on a high but we are wounded and my players are hungry to leave with something to show’’, said Lara, recuperating from the Shoaib Akhtar bouncer that forced him off the field. Irked at the number of questions about the smack from Akhtar, Lara swung the topic back to the final game. ‘‘My teammates are my strength and this is not an opportunity for me to prove anyone wrong. I am just here doing my job and help groom a team for the 2007 world cup back home in the West Indies’’, he said. But the baggage of defeat made its presence felt in the West Indian dressing room before the Champions Trophy began and Lara knows that. With seven Test defeats against England this year — home and away — and a defeat in the final of the NatWest Triangular against New Zealand two months ago, West Indian cricket is a far cry from its golden era. ‘‘There have been some memorable and some forgettable days on this tour but at least we have come good in the one-dayers’’, said Lara. ‘‘It allows for our attacking style of batting. We play better when we know we have to play just 100 overs. This instant style of cricket suits us at this point of time.’.’ The potential of his side is immense but it does not take long for the aura to be exposed by the touch of reality that sullies it. Vaughan, on the other hand, is anxious and excited like his other team mates. ‘‘For the first time since the 1992 World Cup we are in a finals and it is a big occasion. I only want the guys to go out, enjoy it and put pressure on the Windies in the field by playing hard’’, he said. Vaughan added that his team had done a great job this summer winning Test series against the West Indies and New Zealand. ‘‘Now we only need to have one more crack and finish it off with one big bang’’, he added. For that Vaughan will have to look to his fast bowlers, Steve Harmison and Flintoff, to contain the likes of Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, who averages 105 from this tournament, and Lara. Lara however points out that his team has travelled to the final of the Champions Trophy not merely on the strength of its batting but also because of their efforts when bowling and fielding. ‘‘Corey Collymore, Mervyn Dillon and Ian Bradshaw have bowled well for the team and taken early wickets’’, he added. No press conference these days is complete without a mini-session on Andy Flintoff. Vaughan tried to play downthe Flintoff factor saying, ‘‘We were happy to win the game against Australia without his contribution and though his all round performance has been outstanding we have other players who are important to the side’’, he said. Lara cut no corners in praising Flintoff: ‘‘He is the main man for England, the team’s livewire. We have our plans laid out for him. If he gets on top of us, we will try to contain him. But I still reckon that we must concentrate on getting the top three batsmen out rather than worry about a number five batsman.’’ Whether Flintoff heard that one or not is something the Windies skipper will find out on Saturday evening after those exciting 100 overs are up.
