Skipper Gayle leads Windies in IPL

ST JOHN'S, Antigua (AFP) — West Indies captain Chris Gayle will head up the Caribbean swashbucklers at the second Indian Premier League tournament.

Gayle will hope to make up for his injury-hit season last year when he turns out for the Kolkata Knight Riders in South Africa, the venue for the competition after security threats saw it moved from India.

The 29-year-old left-hander, who enjoys an impressive average batting average of 40 plus in both Tests and one-day internationals, can be a destructive force when he gets going.

He formerly held the record for the highest innings in a Twenty20, having scored 117 against South Africa in the World Twenty20 Championship, and was the only batsman to have hit a century in the format.

New Zealander Brendon McCullum eventually broke that record when he notched up an incredible 158 not out for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the first game of the inaugural IPL in 2008.

At the IPL player auction for the eight-team league, which comprises 59 Twenty20 games over five weeks, fast bowlers Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor - who are both useful with the bat, were both snapped up for 150,000 dollars by Deccan Chargers and Kings XI Punjab respectively.

The Chargers also signed Dwayne Smith for 100,000 dollars, while rookie Barbadian pacer Kemar Roach and Kieron Pollard both remained unsold at the auction.

Dwayne Bravo will hope to star for the Mumbai Indians in his second season after West Indies selectors chose to ignore him for the two-Test series against England, which will see his IPL countrymen have to leave South Africa on May 1.

Bravo said his availability for the Mumbai Indians squad had not arisen because of the recent cash feud between players and the West Indies board.

"This is a situation forced on me," Bravo told www.cricinfo.com.

"I have been advised by doctors to get my ankle stronger before I can play five-day cricket. The plan is to join the team in England when the ODIs begin."

Gayle and the likes of Edwards will, like their seven possible England opponents in the IPL, be available for a little less than two weeks and will be paid on a pro-rata basis as a result.

The run-up to the IPL was marked by a threat by five senior West Indies players to withdraw from the series in England as they had already committed to play in the tournament.

The problem arose after the series was arranged bilaterally between the West Indies and England boards after the withdrawal of Sri Lanka - whose players demanded they be allowed to play in the IPL - and falls outside the Future Tours Programme.