We're Quietly Confident - Ramnaresh Sarwan

Firstly I must tell you directly something which I have said before and which is perhaps obvious and that is that it's an honour an privilege to captain the West Indies.

This is my first tour as captain and I will try my very best to help revive West Indies cricket with the help of the players, the staff and the administrators and the support of the fans. We will be able to rise once again but it's not going to happen overnight, it will take a lot of hard work, dedication and communication. We've got to take it step by step.

I am looking forward to leading the team in this Test series with the support of all the guys on the team and all the fans here in England and at home as well.Leading up to this current warm up game against Somerset it was hard for us to get quality preparation given the typical English weather. However while we did not get a chance to practice outdoors at all we made the best use of the indoor facilities. I was very impressed with the way everyone went about their training. Having arrived two days before the warm up game I am sure guys were jet lagged and not acclimatized and to show the effort and commitment they put in training was really impressive.

I won the toss against Somerset and we had decided that we would have batted because we didn't have much time in the middle since the World Cup. The conditions were not the best for batting but because we needed the practice we had to take the opportunity to bat. We have clearly recognized how important it is to get a good start because I think the new ball would play a major part in these conditions. Having said that we ended up being 44 for 4.

We lost Chris Gayle, Daren Ganga, Devon Smith and myself rather early. That put us in a very difficult situation but Runako Morton and Shiv Chanderpaul played exceptionally well. Runako counter attacked and Shiv gave him as much support as he could have to ensure that we dug ourselves out of a hole.

Everyone was delighted for Runako getting a much deserved hundred and it is unfortunate that he had to retire hurt late in the day. However he will be fine for the first Test as he only suffered a strain in his right thigh.

Shiv showed his experience during his innings and reminded us all of the gritty player he is. He also deserves a hundred for his efforts and I hope he goes on tomorrow and achieves that and then carries on. It is also important that Dwayne Bravo supports him as much as he can and tries to form a partnership with Shiv.

I am hoping that the rest of batters who follow will form partnerships with whoever is in as well. Chris suffered a bruise left thumb when batting and had to have a precautionary xray but he will be fine as there are no fractures or anything serious to cause us to worry about his availability for the first test. He may not take to the field just to ensure there is no further aggravation.

I am happy that despite the fact that we had two injury scares today that both Chris and Runako did not suffer serious injuries and will pull through fine. England plays well at home and it will be a challenging Test series for us. It's very important that we execute our plans that we will set out over the next few days and if we can do that on a consistent basis we can compete and prevail. We are quietly about doing well in this series and the boys are very keen to take on England starting at Lords next Thursday.