No-one in the annals of West Indies cricket has made his name more synonymous with power batting and hitting than the former West Indies captain, Clive Hubert Lloyd.

Despite suggested flaws in his batsmanship and a seemingly awkward build, Lloyd managed 7515 runs in his 110 Test matches at an average of 46.67, to confirm that appearances can be deceptive.

The comparison can be made to another left-hander, current Windies Test opener Chris Henry Gayle, who is as gangly and sometimes as elegant, but is already proving to be as powerful a hitter as Lloyd was in his heyday.

Gayle has sometimes been described as the "team's clown" for his appearance and body language, but his excellent fielding and catching is also reminiscent of Lloyd.

Genius

The comparisons end there as Gayle, who views Sir Garfield Sobers as his role model, has played in only 11 Test matches, for 618 runs at an average of 36.35.

But, after a sensational tour of Zimbabawe earlier this year, Gayle is not short of confidence and believes he can progress to surpass the West Indies' current left-handed genius, Brian Lara.

He has formed an impressive opening partnership with Darren Ganga, which may go some way to solving some of the problems currently afflicting the side.

Since the halcyon days of the right-handed Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge, the West Indies have struggled for a successful pair of openers.

And you have to go back even further to find the last successful "classical" left and right-handed pair of Roy Fredericks and Greenidge.

Youngsters

Gayle has great appetite for runs and recently, with another West Indies player, Leon Garrick, broke a Caribbean first-class opening stand record with a partnership of more than 400 runs.

The opener is part of an emerging crop of talented batsmen to break into the West Indies side in the last two years and he believes the Test side has a promising future.

"To be honest, I think the younger players in the West Indies cricket team, including myself, must try to last as long as possible.

"The nucleus that we have now, like Darren Ganga, Marlon Samuels and Ramnaresh Sarwan, and myself, could grow together, and win together. We certainly need to win more often"