CASTRIES, St Lucia (CMC):

President designate of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Julian Hunte has extended "sincere congratulations" to the West Indies team on winning their three-match One-day International (ODI) series against England.

After losing the first game in the series under new captain Chris Gayle, the West Indies bounced back for victories in the second and third games to snatch a 2-1 series triumph.

Speaking to CMC Sport on Saturday, Hunte said the victory augurs well for the future of West Indies cricket and that he looked forward to working with the team and representatives of the players' association with the hope that together they "will be able to push West Indies cricket back to the top, the place it deserves to be".

Hunte while admitting that it will be a lot of hard work to get back to the Caribbean side's former glory days, said that he was prepared to work with all concerned in order to ensure that they "achieve the main objective of the reorganisation, restructuring of West Indies cricket and retrieving the top position in international cricket".

Congratulations to Gayle

"My sincerest congratulations to captain Gayle, manager Mike Findley and the team on a sterling performance and hope that this really is the beginning of things to come," he added.

Hunte, a former vice-president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), is preparing to return to the hierarchy of regional cricket administration, having been the only nominee to take over from Ken Gordon as president of the WICB.

For the second successive game, West Indies produced a spirited effort to completely outplay England, winning the third ODI by 93 runs on Saturday.

Runako Morton and stand-in captain Gayle both made 82 to lead the way, as the visitors - batting first, compiled 289 for five from their allocation of 50 overs.

Man of the Match Daren Powell then collected four wickets for 40 runs from his allotment of 10 overs and Fidel Edwards snared three for 30 from his 10 overs, as West Indies dismissed England for 196 in 44.2 overs.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul, by far the top scorer in the series with 202 runs, was predictably named Man of the Series.