Gayle blames the conditions

West Indies in England 2009

Bulletin by Shwe Wai

	'The majority of the time I was batting out there, that wind was hitting me in the eye and there was a lot of water in the eyes as well'

The West Indies captain Chris Gayle acknowledged that his side have little time to prepare for the second Test against England, on Thursday, but called on his side to adapt to the chilly conditions if they're to square the series at Chester-le-Street.

England headed to an impressively slick ten-wicket win at Lord's yesterday, dismissing West Indies for 256 in their second innings. They collapsed meekly for 152 in the first innings and again in their second, when they lost their last five wickets for just 34 runs, and Gayle was at a loss to explain why.

"It's a tough one to actually answer," he told PA. "It's very disappointing, but we have to try and put that behind us now and have the self-belief to go out and get the job done in Durham. That will be in tough conditions, but we'll just have to cope with it and make sure we are well-prepared. We are looking forward to it."

The tough conditions Gayle spoke of relate to the early start of this year's summer season. With the Ashes acting as the main event, the ECB has had to shoehorn this brief two-Test series just before next month's ICC World Twenty20, and the early cold conditions have unsurprisingly not been to West Indies' liking. John Dyson, the coach, responded to criticism of his side's body language when the team was seen with their hands thrust into their pockets, insisting that they were using hand warmers.

"The majority of the time I was batting out there, that wind was hitting me in the eye and there was a lot of water in the eyes as well," Gayle said. "It makes a big difference, but this is the disadvantage we have to cope with. You just have to tough it out and try to get the job done as well as possible.