BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — Convenor of selectors, Clive Lloyd, believes West Indies have a side capable of challenging at next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

West Indies last won a 50-over World Cup back in 1979 with Lloyd as captain but the former Guyana and Windies left-hander said he was encouraged by what he had seen so far from the players.

“If you look at our side we have tremendous all-rounders, we have good spinners and we have batters that are just as good as any of the teams in the world,” Lloyd said here Thursday.

“Now we have a lot of one-day games before the World Cup, we’re hoping to get that momentum going and get the right combination before the World Cup comes around.”

At the last World Cup in India three years ago, West Indies did well to reach the quarter-finals before bowing out. India went on to win the title.

Next year, West Indies face tough competition when they do battle in Pool B against the likes of South Africa, India, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Ireland, in the tournament that runs from February 13 to March 28.

Lloyd, who also presided over the Windies’ triumph in the inaugural tournament in 1975, only last month took up his new post as chief selector and hopes he can also meet with similar success in this role.

“I just want to see our cricket back on track. I want to see that respect for West Indies cricket again and with the youngsters we have I’m positive that can happen,” he said.

“It (West Indies cricket) has given me my upward mobility and I’m here because I love cricket and I love West Indies cricket and I want to see it rise again. I hope that in my last innings – because I’m in the homestretch – that I leave West Indies cricket in a healthy position.”