West Indies captain Chris Gayle (right) and Dwayne Bravo celebrate after their victory over South Africa on the fourth day of their first Test in Port Elizabeth recently. - Reuters

ST JOHN'S, Antigua (CMC):

Opening batsman Chris Gayle has been appointed captain of the West Indies team for the 2008 Digicel Home Series against Sri Lanka.

Gayle, 28, was nominated by the selection committee and the nomination was approved by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) yesterday, the WICB said in a brief press release late yesterday afternoon.

"I have been nominated captain so I have to fulfill the job at hand right now. I am looking forward to it," Gayle told CMC Sport yesterday evening.

West Indies will play three Tests and two one-day international (ODI) matches against the Sri Lankans from March 22 to April 15.

No vice-captain named

The release did not name a vice-captain and does not address captaincy for the following series between West Indies and Australia, beginning in May.

The powerful left-hander and off-spinner has led the West Indies team since last summer in England, when captain Ramnaresh Sarwan was forced to abort his tour because of a shoulder injury. But Gayle suffered a pulled hamstring and a fractured finger during the tour of South Africa and had to return home.

His appointment yesterday launches him into his first stint as West Indies captain at home, and he believes it will be a testing assignment.

"It's a new series now and basically we are at home now, so it's going to be a totally different ball game. A lot of challenges are going to be there ahead of me but I am looking forward to it, to take on the challenge and see how well I can cope with it," Gayle said.

"Being home now it's a different environment, you know the entire region is right there next to you right now so that will be something I will really have to look at and see how well I can adapt to that situation."

Positive start

Gayle had a positive start as captain last summer when he steered the Caribbean side to a 2-1 ODI series victory over England after the home side had beaten them in the Test series, and his additional stints in South Africa, he believes, gave him a good platform to build on.

"It really helped me in a lot of ways, to be able to captain a few games in England and then captain Test matches in South Africa as well," he said.

"The experience there helped a lot, so hopefully I can carry it (into) the Sri Lanka series; see how well we can rally around each other and play some good cricket," added the big left-handed batsman.

Gayle, who made his Test debut against Zimbabwe in Trinidad in March 2000, has played in 70 Tests, in which he scored 4,658 runs with 59 wickets and 176 ODIs with 6,244 runs and 142 wickets.

The 6-foot-2 Jamaican smashed his highest Test score against South Africa in Antigua in 2005 when he scored 317 at the ARG.

He currently holds the record for the best innings in a Twenty20 International, having scored 117 against South Africa in the World Twenty20 Championship, and he was the first batsman to hit a century in the international Twenty20 format.