THE West Indies enter the new year competitive at the popular format of the game, Twenty20 Internationals, but below par in the long-established Tests and One Day Internationals (ODIs).

Yet captain Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Brendan Nash have ended last year scoring more than 500 runs from some 10 Tests, while five years have now past and still no West Indian bowler has taken 35 or more wickets in the calendar year.

Sarwan led the batting average in 2009 with 60.71 runs, piling up 850 runs in nine Tests from four centuries and one half-century, including a year- and career-best 291 he made against England in February.

Gayle followed with a batting average of 49.27 made in 10 Tests, his 739 runs coming from four centuries and one half-century. An unbeaten 165 against the Australians at Adelaide last month capped his performance when he carried his bat.

Nash ended with an average of 36.56, compiling 585 runs from 10 Tests and boasting one century (109) and four half-centuries.

For Test bowling, the West Indies have again come up short last year with the 6ft-7in Sulieman Benn of Barbados taking 27 wickets from 385.4 overs which featured a best 5-155 for an average 41.37. Another Bajan Kemar Roach had 20 wickets off 180.4 overs, with yet another Bajan, Fidel Edwards, trailing with 16 wickets from 181 overs.

Ironically, the last West Indian bowler to take 35 wickets in the calendar year was Edward’s half-brother Pedro Collins, another Barbadian, in 2004.

In Test batting last year seven players amassed more than 1,000 runs, four of whom were Sri Lankans and two Australians while in the bowling Australian Mitchell Johnson took 63 wickets, ahead of England’s Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad, 54 and 37 wickets respectively.

Despite hopes of progress in West Indies cricket in 2009, the Caribbean men lost three of their four Test series and won only one of 12 Test matches, losing six.

Though the 6ft-2in Gayle took only five Test wickets last year, he has shown his all-round depth by joining Sir Garfield Sobers and Carl Hooper as the only three West Indians to have scored more than 1,000 runs, taken more than 50 wickets, and had more than 50 catches.

Sobers ended his career at Queen’s Park in 1974, with 8,032 runs, 235 wickets and 109 catches from 93 Tests, with Gayle, after 85 Tests, on 5,848 runs, 71 wickets, 82 catches; and Hooper, 5,762 runs, 114 wickets, 115 catches.

In ODIs, the West Indies lost all five series, winning only four of the 22 matches in that format of the game. However, two of the matches ended in no result and one was abandoned, amidst a player revolt by the region’s top players. Thirty-six batsmen and 19 bowlers found themselves in the starting eleven for the Windies in ODIs this year.

However, only captain Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul scored over 500 runs, Gayle completing 2009 with 553 runs for an average 39.50 from 15 matches and the Guyanese 531 runs at an average of 59.00 from 14 matches. Dwayne Bravo finished with 16 wickets from 69.3 overs, with Roach 13 wickets off 43.4 overs. Kieron Pollard followed with 12 wickets from 54.2 overs.

In Twenty20 Internationals, the West Indies defeated England by six wickets in March in Port-of-Spain and put on a show in the ICC World Twenty20 in England, advancing to the semi-finals where they were knocked out by Sri Lankan, who won by 57 runs.

On their way, Windies beat Australia, India and England, then in August beat Bangladesh by five wickets.

With Australia again next month, along with Zimbabwe, before the ICC World Twenty20 at the end of April, then South Africa in May, the West Indies will again try to win over Caribbean fans ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011.

Hopefully by then, no more suspensions, bans, injuries, revolts, or insularities will prevent the West Indies selectors from coming up with the right mix.