Holder to swap bat for clubs in order to help West Indies have a successful World Cup

• West Indies take on New Zealand in their final warm-up game at the County Ground in Bristol
• Holder knows that downtime is key to staying focused in a long World Cup campaign

Pads, tick. Bat, tick. Passport, tick. Golf clubs, tick. West Indies skipper Jason Holder has packed all the essentials for an English summer - though hopefully they’ll be no need for the umbrella.

Holder escaped the pressure of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup build-up with 18 holes of his second favourite sport this week - and has plotted more courses he hopes to visit in the days ahead.

A mouth-watering feast of non-stop cricket is about to commence but Holder knows an escape is needed to maintain his focus.

“In any tournament, especially one like the World Cup, you need to learn when you switch on. When I’ve got time off, I just need to get away from everything - that’s what keeps me fresh,” he said.

“Some guys will like to watch all the games and totally immerse themselves in the tournament but that’s not me.

“I love to play golf, it’s my ultimate way to unwind and the clubs were one of the first things I packed. Nothing beats getting out there for four or so hours and just switching your focus on something else.

“It takes my mind totally off the stresses of captaincy. I need to reset my brain, I can’t be overloading it with too much information and golf is just the perfect sport for that.

“There was such a buzz with the other captains at the launch, I was just raring to go and wanted to get playing, the anticipation and excitement was huge. A few hours on the course helped me calm everything down and get focussed.”

Holder might hope to get his golf handicap down from 11 into single digits in the weeks ahead but the main focus remains the day job.

The West Indies have won two of the four World Cup tournaments staged in England but you need to go back four decades for their last success.

They came through qualifying to earn their place and arrive ranked eighth in the world after three consecutive defeats to Bangladesh in the Tri-Series in Ireland.

But with a number of IPL players back in the squad, including the swashbuckling Chris Gayle, Holder remains optimistic.

And while the class of 2019 can’t yet to be judged close to those Clive Lloyd captained teams of 1975 and 1979, he insists it would be a mistake to dismiss their challenge.

“We’ve spoken a lot about restoring pride to West Indian cricket,” he added.

“We know the significance of our success to an entire region. When the West Indies are doing well, an entire region is happy. What other sport can say that? The success of those teams of the past is held close in the hearts of all our people, they adore their cricket.

“I understand their achievements but I don’t want to dwell on it. I want to create my own legacy and we are in control of how people remember this team in 30 or 40 years.

“As a collective we can highlight the significance of history but it comes down to you as an individual. No-one can change the past and we wouldn’t want to but let’s focus on the future and what we can control.

“We know we are underdogs and it’s not a problem for us, we’ll be doing everything in our power to win this competition.

“Just look at Tiger Woods, it proves anything can happen in sport and sometimes, when the pressure is off or attention is elsewhere, amazing things happen.”

And with that Holder was off to the nets - and then the driving range.