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Chris Gayle has faith Windies Sri Lanka, West can deliver on the big stage Indies scrap Tests from tour
West Indies players follow trainer Hector Martinez Charles during training at the P Sara Oval on Wednesday. (Photo by Philip Spooner WICB).
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olombo, Sri Lanka – West Indies will get their first taste of action in Sri Lanka today when they face the host nation in the opening official warm-up match ahead of the International Cricket C o u n c i l ’s Wo r l d T 2 0 tournament. The Windies arrived in C o l o m b o o n Tu e s d a y morning after a 20-hour journey from Barbados. They hit the ground running on Wednesday morning with an open media session and photo-shoots, followed by a full training session in the afternoon at the P Sara Oval, home of the Tamil Union Cricket & Athletic Club. One player eagerly looking forward to Thursday’s start is Chris
Gayle, who summed up the mood in the team when he said: “It’s time to get going...this is what we’ve come here for.” The warm-up match against the host nation will be played at Nondescripts Cricket Club Ground in Colombo. First ball is 9:30 am (12 midnight Eastern Caribbean Time/11 pm Wednesday Jamaica Time). Gayle, the massive sixfooter, is known worldwide as the most destructive batsman in the T20 format. He is the most successful West Indian in this version of the game with 757 runs in 23 matches at a strike rate of just under 144. His 117 against South Africa in the inaugural World T20 in 2007 is the highest score and only century by a West Indian.
“The World T20 is ‘gonna’ be a cracker! You can feel it already. We’ve only been here 24 hours and already you get the feeling there is something special in the air,” Gayle said on Wednesday morning. “We are away from home and we have to adapt to the conditions as quickly as possible. We want to make a solid start and look to put the other teams under some pressure. “When you look at our team you can say we are well balanced. In these tournaments the best we achieved was the semi-finals in England back in 2009. We didn’t do so well when it was played at home back in 2010 so we want to get it together this time around. Once we stick to what we know, I
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DHQ hold on to slim lead -as First Infantry surge
DHQ’s Patrick King collects the baton from Akeem Stewart for the 400m leg of the Men’s 1500m Medley Relay yesterday at the Base Camp Ayangana Ground.
don’t see any reason why we can’t go all the way.” The 32-year-old added: “I’m really looking forward to it. There are a lot of competitive teams here. Every team has a chance to win ... there’s not going to be any walkovers. No one is going to take anyone for granted and we have to be at our best at all times. We want to get off to a good start and also look to be there at the end when the semi-finals and finals are played.” Gayle has great memories of Sri Lanka. Two years ago he made his highest Test score of 333 against the home side at Galle. “To get that triple century was great for me...I have some happy memories (Continued on page 25)
Sri Lanka will not play an away Test against a top-eight opposition between January and December 2013 © AFP.
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ricinfo - The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) have scrapped two Tests from Sri Lanka’s tour of the West Indies next May and instead plan to play an ODI tri-series involving India. The decision also means that players from both teams will remain available during the IPL, which runs from April 3 to May 26 next year. The teams were scheduled to play two Tests, three ODIs and two Twenty20s as per the Future Tours Programme. It is unclear if the Twenty20s will remain part of the tour. SLC chief executive Ajit Jayasekara denied the motive for foregoing the Tests was to avoid a clash with the IPL, but failed to provide an alternate reason. He said the WICB had put forward the idea, and the SLC had agreed to the change in schedule after holding discussions. Jayasekara said scheduling an ODI series instead of following the FTP would end up being “more lucrative for the board”. WICB corporate communications manager Imran Khan said that all three boards had agreed in principle to the triseries. Dates and details would be finalised following final sanction from the BCCI. Incidentally, national boards receive 10% of each player’s salary from the IPL. This will be the second time Sri Lanka have foregone a Test series which clashes with the IPL. In 2009, they declined to replace Zimbabwe in England, when Zimbabwe were unable to tour for political reasons. In 2011, several players, including Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, missed tour matches playing in the IPL ahead of a three-Test series in England, which Sri Lanka eventually lost 1-0. West Indies spin bowler Sunil Narine also missed two Tests against England due to his IPL commitments, though he did play in the third Test. Chris Gayle did not feature in that series due to a standoff with the board, which has since been resolved. The change in the tour programme is also a continuation of the SLC’s recent trend of culling Tests from Sri Lanka’s schedule. Two tests against India in July became five ODIs and a Twenty20 and the three Tests scheduled for England in March became a two-Test series as the IPL approached. With the schedule now adjusted, Sri Lanka will not play an away Test against a top-eight opposition between January and December. The BCCI did not confirm India’s involvement in any change of plans. “We have been told about this but the matter is being discussed. Nothing has been decided or finalised yet,” a senior BCCI official said. During its annual meeting in Malaysia, the ICC had decided not to create a window for the IPL, as they did not want to set a precedent of domestic tournaments taking priority over international cricket. “Once you provide a window for one particular member, you have to be conscious of the fact you may well have to do it for other members,” then ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said in June. “Hence why we have not been supportive of a window specifically for any one of those domestic leagues.”
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