West Indies look to build on momentum

West Indian captain Chris Gayle indicated that his team wouldn't take the games in Ireland lightly.

Speaking to reporters in Dublin fresh on arriving after the ODI series win over England, Gayle said, "It's good to be here on such a high note. We can't take these three games [in Ireland] for granted. We have to compete with the other teams and try and play the best cricket that we can play and try and maintain the standard and go home on a high."

Coach David Moore hoped that the team could carry forward the good performance. "We've come to Ireland from the last series with a bit of momentum and the players have been playing well and coming together as a group and hopefully we can take that momentum into this series."

Moore hinted that a few youngsters could be given a chance, but said his team would want to remain unbeaten in the games against Ireland, the Netherlands and Scotland.

"Every game that the players represent the West Indies they take seriously and look to win and win well. There will be some young players looking for opportunities and if they get their opportunities they will have to take those. We are very serious about this series, we are looking to go through undefeated and play as best we can."

Moore applauded Shivnarine Chanderpaul's performance in England, where his excellent batting earned him the Man-of-the-Series awards in both the Tests and ODIs. "He has been tremendous for us for the entire summer being our main stand-out batter. It is good to have a guy in your team who puts up his hand every time and stands out."

Gayle was also pleased with his fifty in the final ODI, during which he crossed 6000 runs in limited-overs cricket. "It was good to get some runs but from a team point of view I think we all played good cricket. We planned well, the unit was so good and to come out victorious in England is a tremendous feeling for everyone."

Julien Fountain, the side's new fielding coach, was also commended by Gayle. "Julien Fountain has done a great job with us and we all really enjoyed the fielding sessions as well. We have been working on it and we have to try and keep the standard high on the field.

"Hopefully this can be something for the future and the guys can really build on this momentum. We have the Twenty20 World Cup coming up so these things have to be taken into consideration. The guys have to go back home and take a rest."

Both Gayle and Moore had high regard for the Irish team.Gayle said, "We played against Ireland in the World Cup and they are not a team to take for granted. They have capable guys, experienced guys and guys who have been to the World Cup and guys who have been playing at a top first-class level. They will come at us hard and we will be there battling."

Moore added that he was impressed with Ireland. "We saw them beat Pakistan and they played very well. They have some very good young players in their team and I am looking to them being very competitive in this series. They are a very good team; there is no doubt about that."

The coach was also wary of the fact that Ireland had beaten West Indies twice at home. "We are very aware of their good record at home against the West Indies. We are very cautious about that and we don't want that to happen again."