Darren Sammy does not think West Indies have an edge going into their World T20 semi-final against Sri Lanka because of what happened in the final of the previous edition. Sri Lanka had tied down the West Indies batsmen completely for more than half of their innings in Colombo before Marlon Samuels' counter-attack lifted his side to a title-winning score. Sammy felt, however, that the incidents of that night would be in the minds of the Sri Lankans.
"Cricket is not about what happens before," Sammy said. "It's (about) what happens on a cricket field on that present day. We defeated them in the World Cup (2012 final) and in the practice game here but they have played some good cricket and we have a lot of respect for them.
"Last final will be at the back of their mind, the practice game will be at the back of their mind. Once West Indies turn up, West Indies are dangerous."
No team has successfully defended the World T20 title before, but Sammy said West Indies were confident they could become the first side to do so.
"When we left the Caribbean, we had that as the motivation factor for us," he said. "In the last World Cup, the mantra was one team, one goal and the mission was to win the World Cup. This year the mantra is the same: One team, one goal, but the mission is to retain the title. It's something that no team has done before and we are very confident that we can do it.
"Once we play the brand of cricket that we played in the last three games, there is every possibility that we can do it. We have been peaking at the right times (and) doing some good things with our team spirit and our never-say-die attitude. Hopefully, that will be contagious. Hopefully, we have another good semi-final like we did in the last World Cup (against Australia)."
When asked about Rangana Herath's astonishing return of 5 for 3 against New Zealand, Sammy said it was offspinners who had troubled West Indies. "The off-spinners are the ones who have got wickets against us so we don't mind their left-arm-spinner," he said. "Hopefully, we don't play him as the New Zealanders did. We know what we are going to come across or against, but this bunch of guys in the dressing room are very confident even when everything seems gloomy."