West Indies need committed seniors - Gibson

Against the backdrop of Chris Gayle's continued omission from the West Indies side, the coach Ottis Gibson has said the team needed "committed" senior players as they begin the tour of Bangladesh.

With the captain Darren Sammy not in a position to answer questions related to Gayle, Gibson stepped in, refusing to believe that it was difficult for his side without senior players like Gayle.

"Do we need our senior players? I think we need everybody who is committed to us," Gibson said in Mirpur. "Some people will think we need them. We are building a team and of course we need senior players that are committed to mix with the youngsters.

"The youngsters have taken the opportunity and done very well for us. As we are looking at the future, we will build a team around the younger guys."

Gayle's 12-year international career came to a halt this year because of a breakdown in his relationship with the WICB after West Indies' quarter-final exit from the 2011 World Cup.

West Indies' previous match against Bangladesh was also in the World Cup, when they routed the hosts for 58. It was revenge two years in the making after Bangladesh had beaten a weakened West Indies side in Tests and ODIs in the Caribbean in 2009. Sammy played down that World Cup match as a one-off, but the memories of March 4 are fresh in the minds of every Bangladesh fan.

"The last time we played, we got the better of them," Sammy said. "We'll try to repeat such a performance, but you can't bowl out teams under 100 every game.

"They are a good side at home, winning quite comfortably against New Zealand last year. We never took them for granted and we won't do it here. We want to focus on us and on what we could do. They say that you're as good as your last performance. Hopefully it'll play very much on their mind. It's never about revenge. It's about making full use of the opportunity."

Sammy was not happy about the absence of the Decision Review System for the series. "For us the DRS has been a very good inclusion in the game," he said. "It's unfortunate that we don't have it in this series. Whatever could be made possible to eliminate errors in the game, we'd welcome it."

West Indies play one Twenty20 international, two Tests and three ODIs on their tour of Bangladesh starting from October 11.