The ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat said when the two-day ICC History Conference looked back at the past 100 years of the game as part of its centenary year celebrations, it was clear that the sport was “resilient, strong and still developing”.

“Exploring the history of the ICC and cricket over the past 100 years has been a fascinating and educational experience. What I believe it has shown us is that cricket is resilient, strong and still developing,” Lorgat said at the end of the conference.

“The conference showed that our great sport has faced challenges and some of those challenges have been substantial.

However, it also showed that cricket has always coped with those challenges and has adapted to the extent that it is now stronger and more diverse than ever before,” he said.

“We have three formats, the ICC has more members than ever before – 104 of them – and within those members there are more people playing the game than at any time in our history,” he added.

The match started an hour late following heavy rains just after India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to field, forcing the umpires to reduce it to a 49-over-a-side affair.

West Indies were 27 for one when rain interrupted play for the second time after they had lost the crucial wicket of skipper Chris Gayle for a duck.

Runako Morton (12 not out) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (12 not out) were at the crease when play was called off.

With this victory, India registered only their second bilateral series triumph in the Caribbean. Last time they won a series in West Indies was in 2002 under Sourav Ganguly’s captaincy.

India had earlier won the first match of the series by 20 runs, while West Indies cameback strongly in the second, hammering the Dhoni-led side by eight wickets.

However riding on Dhoni’s brilliance, India took the unassailable 2-1 lead, winning the third ODI by six wickets with a ball to spare.

Electing to field, Ishant Sharma gave India the dream start, picking up the vital wicket of Gayle in the second ball of the innings, caught behind by Dhoni with the hosts failing to open their account.

From there on, the West Indian batsmen found runs hard to come by against the accurate bowling of Ishant and Ashish Nehra. The hosts’ struggle can be gauged from the fact they failed to struck a single boundary in the 7.3 overs theyfaced.

Sarwan also said his team will have to click as a unit as they tackle the Indian bowling attack.

“We’ve got experience within experience and hopefully we’ll come together as a unit. Over the years, we’ve tried to rotate the strike as much as we can but we know how good Harbhajan Singh is and he’s been a very good performer for India over the years,” Sarwan said.

The Guyanese felt the key to his side’s success in the series beginning at Sabina Park, would be how well it could work on the ball.

“It’s important that (the West Indies) stay positive against him as well and the rest of the bowlers that we’ll be playing against but I think the key when we play India is to try and work the ball as much as we can,” he said.

Sarwan also felt that irrespective of their recent Super Eight match win over India in the Twenty20 World Cup in England, Indians will be “a handful in the Caribbean”.

Dyson said they have chalked out strategies to tackle key Indian players, though he admitted the new members in the side could spring a surprise.

India would take field in the first of the four ODIs at Sabina Park here Friday, with key players like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan missing from the series.

“We will play aggressive cricket, we will play to win as always, and we will aim for consistency of performance,” Dyson was quoted in the media here Wednesday.

“The players love the sunshine on their back, they like the warmer temperature, the local food. Of course, they like being home. They missed their families while they were away in England and getting back to the Caribbean will suit them down to the ground,” said the former Australian Test opener.

West Indies are high on form and confidence after reaching the semi-final of the World Twenty20 in England.

Skipper Chris Gayle led the side from the front with some smashing knocks as West Indies demolished Australia in the group stage and then went on to upset India and England in the Super Eights to become surprise semifinalists before falling to Sri Lanka.

Dyson said they are ready with a plan to combat the Indians.

“We always look at the opposition and try and determine who the key players are for the opposition and think of ways that we may combat those key players. What we don’t know, of course, is from the lower-profile players, how they are going to perform and perform consistently throughout a series. So that’s something we have to monitor as the series progresses.”