Story West Indies Caribbean Calypso! **UPDATED** 2nd ODI: IND vs WI - India will bat first!!!

[Highlander999]

West Indies Caribbean Calypso​

West Indies cricket in recent years has been the joke of the international cricketing community. The days of Ambrose, Walsh and Lara are long gone, now we have a Windies side which are only just above minnow status.

Things however, have begun to look up for the West Indies fans in recent times. Chris Gayle, although, not the biggest supporter of test cricket, showed why he is one of the best opening batsmen in the world during the rcent tour of Australia. The farce that was the Champions Trophy did end up uncovering a few talented individuals and hopefully these band of brothers can begin to slowly drag the Windies kicking and screaming towards the good old days.

The WICB has announced the schedule for the Windies in 2010:

The Windies first challenge of 2010 will be a tough tour to India, where they will participate in a tri series with India and England before 2 tests against India.


The LG ODI Tri Series


1st ODI: India vs England at Kolkata: Click here for the start of the match!

2nd ODI: India vs West Indies at Nagpur: Click here for the start of the match!

3rd ODI West Indies vs England at Cuttack

4th ODI: West Indies vs India at Kanpur

5th ODI: England vs West Indies at Ahmedabad

6th ODI: India vs England at Mumbai

Best of 3 final

1st Final: tba vs tba at Mumbai

2nd Final: tba vs tba at Mumbai

3rd Final: tba tba at Mumbai



The Pepsi/Coca-Cola Test Series


1st Test: India vs West Indies at Kanpur

2nd Test: India vs West Indies at Ahmedabad



Next it is the 20/20 World Cup which is being held in the Windies back-yard. This is going to be the big one for the Windies as they will be looking to prove they are no push-over and do the home fans proud!

Fixtures TBA


After that it is another tour down under for the Windies as they play Australia in 2 20twenty's, 4 test's and 5 ODI's.

Fixtures TBA



All in all it should be an exciting year for West Indian cricket. With a lot of youth present in their side now, they have the players to work with, it'll just be down to the likes of Gayle, Chanderpaul and Sarwan to help gel them together and find that match winning combination which has been lacking in recent years

 

[JD10]

Nice start from Tom. Keep it up mate

 

[Prithvi]

Another calypso beat by tom. Kiu mate

 

[ShamiLoverGlipGlops]

This story is going to be great one... Hope to see you supporting other stories tooo

 

[Griffo]

I still think Zimbabwe would have been better...

 

[Highlander999]

Yeah, but I would have had to make a whole new roster and with the Windies I only needed to edit a few players.

 

[MaD]

Lol, can you guide them to victory?

 

[Prithvi]

Lol. Why not.? Its ea game and it has many editors which can change the course of the game:laugh

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Looking forward for another great story from Tom. I am sure you could guide them to victory in all formats of the game and I know they are capable of beating everyone. Great presentation Tom

 

[Highlander999]

West Indies announce ODI squad for Indian Tour​

Today in a press conference with Chris Gayle and the West Indies coach, David Williams, the West Indies announced to the world the ODI squad that would be heading off to India to tour in the upcoming tri series. It is the strongest ODI side that has been seen in recent years by the West Indies and has a good mix of youth and experience.

C. Gayle (C)
D. Ramdin (wk (vc)
A. Fletcher (wk)
L. Baker
S. Benn
D. Bravo
S. Chanderpaul
N. Deonarine
T. Dowlin
F. Edwards
B. Nash
K. Powell
K. Pollard
R. Rampaul
K. Roach
D. Sammy
R. Sarwan
L. Simmons
J. Taylor​

Chris Gayle was his usual calm and cool self when answering question from the press about his team's chances in the tri series

Many people have been saying that you don't stand a chance in this tour due to all the chaos that has happened with West Indies cricket in recent months. What do you have to say to them?

Come on Tim. You should know me well enough by now, that I don't care what other people think. People can say all they want about my team, at the end of the day we are going out to India to win and are going to be doing our level best to achieve this.

On the spinning pitches of India, do you think many of your batsmen might struggle due to lack of experience against quality spin bowling. India have Harbhajan Singh and Jadeja, whilst England have Graeme Swann. Is Benn going to be up to the task of holding down one end?

Benny has proven himself more then capable of holding down one end with quality spin bowling, in the less spin friendly conditions of here, South Africa and Australia. With the way the conditions are in India, I expect him to excel and I know that he is really looking forward to the experience as he will be expecting turn and bounce.

Who is the most dangerous player to watch out for in this series?

Me!

It's a well known fact you are not a fan of test cricket. Does that mean you will be putting more of an emphasis on the ODI series?

Look Chris. I do get pretty fed up of all this rubbish I hear about me not being a fan of test cricket. Yes, I prefer limited over cricket as it suits my game more, but at the end of the day playing cricket for my country is the only thing I care about, whether that is in whites or colour I don't care. I think we showed in Australia that we have the potential to cause the best teams in the world a few problems and I am more then confident that we can walk away from the test series with at least a draw and possibly a win. If anyone under-estimates us in test cricket then they are in for a nasty shock.

Sir Viv Richards said a few days ago that he thinks West Indies cricket has reached a turning point and feels that it could be heading back to how it used to be. You agree?

Well I am hardly going to say no I would agree with Sir Viv though. I have certainly noticed cricket becoming a lot more popular with the kid's back home these days. I see them playing it in the streets, parks and beaches and that is what I like to see. Maybe it is down to 20/20 and the financial boost this has given cricket, I would like to hope that maybe seeing the West Indies team put up a bit more of a fight recently also encourage them to play the game. Whatever the reason, the only key point is that it can only be good for West Indies cricket in the long run. We have a very good squad at the moment, with not only a very strong playing XI but some good reserves as well. Myself and David are going to have some head-ache's trying to pick the starting XI, every man named in this squad deserves a place!

Any chance we can see any more singing from you, like we did in Australia? :laugh

I don't know, it will be a spur of the moment thing, if it happens

So there you have the West Indies squad. As Gayle said, every player there deserves his place and picking a starting XI is going to be very hard indeed. Certainly, there is a lot of competition for places and it will be interesting to see who West Indies pick for their first match against India at Nagpur.

In other news Australian broadcaster has surprised everyone by claiming the TV rights for the tri series and the test series. They obviously feel that this is going to be a popular and exciting tour and have beaten both Sky Sports and ESPN for the broadcasting rights.

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Thats a very strong squad for the West Indies and hopefully it can beat England and India(@ home). I am sure its going to be an entertaining tour. Great update as usual Tom..

 

[Prithvi]

What happened to bharat.?

 

[treva]

Do you mean Barath?

 

[Gaurav_7]

Fantastic start mate.Nice looking squad for the Windies there.Hopefully Windies don't have any disputes here and they perform well.Good Luck with this one.

 

[Highlander999]

What happened to bharat.?

Currently in a jail in Santa Domingo for drug smuggling