World T20: Tough draw for Windies

If Twenty20 would have been played in the ���70s and ���80s, the West Indies would have been the Gods of it. Sadly, though, the decline in Caribbean cricket has spread to the latest version of the sport as well.
Ironically, the best performance by a West Indian in a T20 game went in vain. Two years back in the inaugural T20 World Cup, Chris Gayle smashed a blazing hundred, inclusive of as many as ten sixes, against South Africa, only to see his team lose.Then, they surrendered to Bangladesh to crash out.
This time, Windies��� trump card is again skipper Gayle, who has made his liking for Twenty20 loud and clear. The powerful left-hander would be looking to make amends for his staid IPL show by bludgeoning bowling attacks in the next couple of weeks.
Beyond Gayle, old warhorses Sarwan and Chanderpaul can always be relied to hold the batting together. The bowling rests heavily on Fidel Edwards��� shoulders, with pace bowling colleague Jerome Taylor offering support. However, barring Dwayne Bravo, predicting how the rest of the cast will perform is risky business. Shockingly, the talented Dwayne Smith has been excluded.
To add to their problems, the Windies are placed in the ���Group of Death���- they have Australia and Sri Lanka to contend with, thanks to a poor show two years back in the first T20 WC. Gayle has taken this harsh fact of life in a positive way though. He believes that if the Windies swim through this deep end, they will be high on confidence coming into the next round.
Expecting the Windies to go through from Group C could be wishful thinking, but their die-hard fans would be hoping that for old times��� sake, the Calypsos turn the clock back, for once, just like they did in 2004 by winning the Champions Trophy.
Squad:
Chris Gayle (capt), Denesh Ramdin (wk), Lionel Baker, Sulieman Benn, David Bernard jnr., Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards, Andre Fletcher, Xavier Marshall, Kieron Pollard, Darren Sammy, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Lendl Simmons, Jerome Taylor