Chris Gayle and his West Indies team are confident of winning the International Cricket Council’s World Twenty20 2009 and they will be going all out to achieve this goal.

As part of their build-up the Windies had impressive wins in the two unofficial warm-up matches against Scotland and Ireland at the John Paul Getty Ground. They will now switch their attention to the official warm-up matches against Ireland on Tuesday and England on Wednesday.

“It was very good to get a couple of wins under our belt. It was also very good for the guys to get that feel of winning. It would be nice to be up in there in the top … but the first priority is to try and get to the second stage and then we can take it from there,” Gayle said at the official launch at Lord’s.

In the official tournament, the Windies are in Group C alongside Australia and Sri Lanka. The other groups in the tournament are: Group A which has title-holders India, Bangladesh and Ireland; Group B comprises England, Pakistan and the Netherlands; while Group D is made up of New Zealand, South Africa and Scotland.

“We want to win. We believe we can win and we will be playing every match to win… we are confident we can win,” said the 29-year-old Gayle. “We are here to play good cricket and we are looking forward to it. We want to get onto the field and get a few wins and move on to the next round. We just have to stick to our basic plans.”

This is the second edition of the ICC’s World Twenty20 event. In the first tournament in September 2007 Gayle became the first batsman to make a century when he blasted 117 against South Africa in Johannesburg. The big left-hander said he will be looking for more big scores, but a team victory would be most pleasing.

“I would love to give the fans something to cheer about,” Gayle said.

West Indies

upcoming matches

Warm-ups

Tuesday, June 2: vs Ireland at The Oval – 130 pm

Wednesday 3 June 3: vs England at Lord’s – 530 pm

Group Stage

Saturday, June 6: vs Australia at The Oval – 130 pm

Wednesday, June 10: vs Sri Lanka at Trent Bridge – 130 pm