Vin­ode Mam­chan

The West In­dies crick­et team mem­bers were all in a jovial mood de­spite their cur­rent po­si­tion at the 2015 Crick­et World Cup, when they took to the streets for a wel­come par­ty or­gan­ised by au­thor­i­ties in West­ern Aus­tralia and the Perth Caribbean So­ci­ety.

Smiles fi­nal­ly came out, af­ter the drub­bing they re­ceived at the hands of South Africa in Syd­ney. The biggest one came from Chris Gayle, as he took to the stage to sing and en­ter­tain the di­as­po­ra who had turned up to give the team a Caribbean wel­come.

Sev­er­al hun­dred well-wish­ers turned out at the Perth Cul­tur­al Cen­tre. While the play­ers were decked off in their trav­el­ling blue kit, the crowd pre­ferred ma­roon.

West In­dies cap­tain, Ja­son Hold­er pre­sent­ed a spe­cial­ly signed West In­dies team shirt to Dr Kim Hames. Tahj Reid, a 12-year-old Ja­maican, sang Ral­ly Round The West In­dies. Af­ter the for­mal pro­gramme the play­ers signed au­to­graphs and took pho­tos with their ador­ing fans.

"We didn't re­al­ly ex­pect so many peo­ple but af­ter we went on stage to be in­tro­duced and say hel­lo to the fans, we were tru­ly touched," said all­rounder Dar­ren Sam­my, the West In­dies T20 cap­tain.

"We have a great track record in Perth and we feel 'at home' here. This is great! This is re­al­ly in­spir­ing to see how much the peo­ple love West In­dies crick­et."

West In­dies, two-time World Cup cham­pi­ons, have won two match­es and lost two in Pool B of the ICC Crick­et World Cup 2015. They are in Perth to face In­dia at the WA­CA Ground on Fri­day. First ball in the day/night match is 2.30 am East­ern Caribbean Time).

Mean­while, the West In­dies team had the day off yes­ter­day and will turn up at the WA­CA to­day to con­duct their first train­ing ses­sion in the city. A lot of at­ten­tion will sur­round fast bowler Ke­mar Roach, who is ex­pect­ed to be the West In­dies' trump card at the fast and boun­cy WA­CA against In­di­an bats­men, who have shown vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty against the quick bowlers.

Roach was dropped af­ter a less than im­pres­sive per­for­mance against Ire­land in the open­ing match of the tour­na­ment at Nel­son. Since then, he has been work­ing very hard with bowl­ing coach Curt­ly Am­brose and is ex­pect­ed to take the new ball against the In­di­ans.