CATEGORY:SPORTS (CRICKET) ------------------------------ INSIDE GRENADA Monday April 02,2007 by Wallace J.A GRENADA: The West Indies cricket team is scheduled to arrive in the Spice Island sometime today. The team will be flying in from Guyana where they played and loss to Sri Lanka (yesterday) in front one of a crowd exceeding12, 000 cricket fans. After emerging as the leading team in their group during the first round of competition (beating Pakistan and Ireland), the West Indies have lost their first three games in the Super Eight round and presently run the risk of being knocked out of the ICC World Cup tournament at this stage, instead of advancing to the semi-finals stage as most West Indians had hoped (and are still hoping). Yesterday’s loss to Sri Lanka was a disappointment to almost every Caribbean national. The team looked very ordinary on the field in all major aspects of the game, namely fielding, bowling and batting. Sri Lanka was able to wallop the WI bowlers to all parts of the field and amass a total of 303 runs in their allotted 50 overs, loosing only 5 wickets in the process. Sri Lankan batsman Jayasuriya struck 115 off 101 balls with 10 fours and four sixes and shared a third-wicket partnership of 183 with skipper Mahela Jayawardene (82) to put their team in a solid position. Chasing a colossal total of 304 for victory, the West Indies collapsed miserably for a pathetic 190 in 44.3 overs. The only West Indian batsman that looked the part was Chanderpaul who put up good resistance and gave the disappointed crowd of West Indian supporters something to cheer about before he was bowled by Malinga for 76. The West Indies next match will be in Grenada on April 10 when they come up against South Africa at the National Stadium. To keep their chances of making it to the next round of the CWC 2007 alive, West Indies have to win their remaining three cricket matches. Based on their poor performances in the last three games and the ‘looser’ body language of some players on the team, the WI will definitely have to make some long overdue changes to the present composition of the team.