Van Gerwen quips about new teammate at World Cup: 'Jermaine just needs to listen to me, then everything will be fine'

Michael van Gerwen has a new teammate on his side at the World Cup of Darts in the coming week. Jermaine Wattimena replaced five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld.

Van Barneveld and Van Gerwen claimed the title last year at the World Cup of Darts. Nevertheless, Barney lost his place because Wattimena overtook him on the world ranking. That was a reason for the PDC to put 'The Machine Gun' next to the world number one.
The right choice, Van Gerwen told Dartsnews. ''Jermaine deserves this if you look to the last two years. Of course, it's sad for Raymond. But this is a big chance for Jermaine to prove himself on the big stage and I hope I can help him with that.''
Netherlands performed very well in the doubles matches in the last few years. Van Gerwen and Van Barneveld hit an astonishing 117.88 in their pair game against Northern Ireland in 2014, which is still a world record in team averages. The four highest team averages at the World Cup of Darts are all thrown by the Dutch team.
As Van Gerwen and Wattimena form a team for the first time, Mighty Mike thinks this inexperience should not be a problem. ''Jermaine just needs to listen to me. Then everything will be fine'', he quipped.

Interesting World Cup

The Dutch aces . Van Gerwen and Wattimena are warned for the Spanish team, as Toni Alcinas has experience with knocking out one of the seeded nations. He beat England with his teammate Carlos Rodríguez nine years ago. Cristo Reyes replaced Rodriguez five years ago, as the Spanish duo teamed up for a fifth consecutive year. "The World Cup will be interesting because there are a lot of players in good form, but also a lot of players in poor form and with the short format we could see some surprises'', Van Gerwen added on the PDC website. "I want to win every tournament I compete in, of course that's not easy but you have to set yourself high targets to stay sharp.''