From Chris to captain cool

Garfield Myers in the Jamaica Observer charts Chris Gayle's journey from playing cricket over the wall from his home with his brothers as a kid in Kingston to captaining West Indies. All those who saw him in his formative years agreed young Gayle loved to bat.

George Watson, a relative of Gayle's and long-time Lucas club captain and elder, recalls that the young Chris and his brothers cut their teeth on cricket playing the hard, highly individualistic 'bowl fi bat' or 'ketchi shubby' on any available open space ... Andre Coley, the former West Indies Under-19 and Jamaica wicketkeeper and Lucas captain, now a member of the JCA's coaching panel, recalls a skinny, gangly left-hander batting for "hours and hours" on the concrete practice strip at Lucas. It was a habit that quickly convinced Coley and others that the young Gayle, who carried the unflattering nickname, 'Crampy', was destined to be a "cut above the rest".

Mike King of Barbados' Nation expects the series between West Indies and England to be a hard-fought one.

All of the individual stats are on the side of England. Shiv Chanderpaul, (49.71) is the only West Indian who averages above 40 in Test cricket. In contrast, Kevin Pietersen, who averages 50, is backed up by Paul Collingwood, Alistair Cook, and Andrew Strauss, all of whom average 42; Ian Bell (41) and Matt Prior (40).