Big names signed on the dotted line and more than half committed to multi-year deals as teams battled for signatures during the KFC T20 Big Bash League Signing Window. Fan favourites including David Hussey, Pat Cummins, Mitch Marsh, Brett Lee, Brad Hodge and Callum Ferguson, as well as internationals Luke Wright, Johan Botha and Owais Shah, were among the high profile players who signed with their respective teams for BBL|02 and beyond.

"We expected there'd be a lot more competition for signatures this year and that has been the case, particularly with teams now able to sign players to multi-year contracts," KFC T20 Big Bash League Manager Anthony Everard said. "What we've seen over the past two weeks is that teams have done a lot work after BBL|01 to further develop their recruiting strategies and target players from outside their existing squads who they believe will help build long-term success.

The West Indies continued to maintain their strangehold over the visiting Kiwis as they recorded a comfortable 55 run win in the 2nd ODI of the series at Kingston, Jamaica on the back of a pair of entertaining centuries from Chris Gayle (125) and Marlon Samuels (101). Having been invited to bat first, the West Indies powered their way to 315-5, on a day when they probably should have eased past 350, considering the platform Gayle and Samuels had provided them. New Zealand to their credit battled hard and stayed in the game till the very end thanks to contrasting half-centuries from Martin Guptill (51), Kane Williamson (58) and BJ Watling (72). The visitors were eventually knocked over for 260 with 3 overs to spare.

Lendl Simmons continued to cast a huge doubt over his West Indies future after yet another failure in the opening slot. The young right-hander fell for 3 caught behind off Tim Southee in the 4th over. Dwayne Smith came to the rescue once again and shared an 88 run stand with Chris Gayle, dominated by the latter. Smith fell for an uncharacteristically quiet 24 to the leg-spinner Tarun Nethula.

In the absence of super striker Kieron Pollard, the West Indies posted an impressive, if not quite so imposing total of 177-5 in their 20 overs courtesy of another half-century from Chris Gayle (53) and a blistering 11-ball innings of 35 from Dwayne Bravo, who provided the late flourish to their innings. The runs on the board though proved to be more than enough to take down the Kiwis for a second straight game, with New Zealand getting knocked over for just 116 with Sunil Narine spinning a brilliant web around them to pick up match winning figures of 4-12 from his quota of 4 overs. Bravo followed up his outstanding effort with the bat with 2 wickets as well, as the West Indies ended this short trip to the United States for the T20 series 2-0 victors.

Kane Williamson, who was captaining New Zealand today in the absence of the injured Ross Taylor, lost the toss and the West Indies decided to once again make first use of the pitch. Dwayne Smith just like he did yesterday smashed two sixed before falling in his teens, once again to Doug Bracewell, this time out caught and bowled.

It was the kind of plundering the Pirates of the Caribbean are famous for with Captain Jack Sparrow aka Chris Gayle and Commodore Barbossa played by Kieron Pollard waged war on the hapless Kiwis, looting 108 runs from a little less than 7 overs to power the West Indies to an excellent 209-2 in their 20 overs. The natives of Lauderhill, Florida did not know what hit them as the West Indies, calmly strolling at 101-2 in the 14th over exploded to life in the second half of the innings with Gayle posting an unbeaten 85 from 52 deliveries, while Pollard chipped in with a breathtaking 63 from 29 balls.

A shell shocked New Zealand appeared to have the game under control early on with the mandatory power play yielding 43 decent runs, for the loss of Dwayne Smith for 17, cleaned up by Doug Bracewell. Chris Gayle and Johnson Charles (24) added 74 patient runs for the 2nd wicket with Gayle starting in his new typical studied approach, scoring at exactly a run a ball from the first 32 balls he faced before adding 53 from his next 20. The Maestro's innings included 7 boundaries and 5 sixes, with Pollar chipping in with 5 big ones of his own to power the Windies to a massive total.

The second ODI between England and West Indies at The Oval saw the return of Calypso King Chris Gayle to his national colors after more than a year but it was the England skipper Alastair Cook who stole all the limelight with a brilliant century that sealed the series 2-0 in the favor of the hosts with a whopping eight wicket victory. England asked the Windies to bat first and it seemed a poor decision initially with Gayle having the bowlers at his mercy during his half century but the English bowlers pulled it back beautifully to restrict the visitors to 238-9 despite some late Dwayne Bravo heroics with the bat. Cook then led the way with a scintillating century and was ably supported by a belligerent Ian Bell and later by a patient Jonathan Trott as the Englishmen hardly broke a sweat in overcoming the modest target.

The biggest news from the toss was that the big hitting Chris Gayle made his comeback to the West Indies side after a year long exile. He replaced Darren Bravo in the Windies line-up from the side who got hammered in the first ODI. Bravo had returned home after picking up an injury in the field in the last game. The West Indies also amended their bowling unit, recalling 3rd Test hero Tino Best, who replaced the erratic Andre Russell. England meanwhile fielded an unchanged side from their comfortable victory in the first game. Alastair Cook won the toss and chose to field first placing immense faith in his pace bowlers to get the better of Chris Gayle.

The first ODI between England and West Indies was billed as the tale of two openers. While the prodigal son, Chris Gayle was ruled out of the match due to a foot injury, his English counterpart Ian Bell, identified as Kevin Pietersen's successor by Andy Flower, repaid his coach's faith with a artistic ton punctuated by 12 fours and a six. Despite carrying a suspected fracture of his jaw, Bell (126) cut, drove and pulled magnificently to steer the hosts to a formidable 288. His 108 run association with Jonathan Trott (42) formed the cornerstone of the English innings. In response, West Indies lost their way after a sparkling start and slumped to 172 all-out. Dwayne Smith (56) ran riot before Tim Bresnan(4-34) ignited the collapse. Big Bresnan was ably supported by James Anderson and Grame Swann, who snapped up 2 scalps apiece.

West Indies, energized by the arrival of reinforcements to their squad, collided with England in the first of the three match ODI series on a breezy day at Southampton. In a cruel quirk of fate, Chris Gayle, scheduled to return to the international arena following more than a year in the wilderness, missed the game owing to an injury. Kevin Pietersen's premature retirement in the abbreviated forms of the game meant that the Poms had to rejig their batting. Ian Bell, who was hit in the chin during the net session cleared a late fitness test to take up his new role as 'opener'. As expected, Alastair Cook fielded a four pronged pace attack in an effort to exploit the conditions expertly. The West Indies team's all-rounder heavy nature branded them slight favorites. Darren Sammy won the toss elected to bowl first on a pitch that promised plenty of assistance to the bowlers.

England will have every reason to be annoyed with the rain gods, and the lack of quality of Duckworth-Lewis when it comes to Twenty20 cricket after their mammoth score of 191 in 20 overs was reduced to the significantly more feasible ask of 10 an over from 6 thanks to a lengthy rain interruption that threatened to kill the game off completely. A 95-run partnership from just 56 balls for the 5th wicket between Eoin Morgan and Luke Wright went in vain as Chris Gayle powered West Indies past the finish line with a ball to spare. The result meant a confirmed trip to the Super 8s for the hosts, while England are left to shoot it out with neighbours Ireland on Tuesday for the second spot from Group D.

West Indies won the toss and made a weather influenced decision to bat second after the preceding game between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe at the same venue had got ruined by rain too. Chris Gayle and Sulieman Benn returned to the Windies line-up from injury, with Kemar Roach and Denesh Ramdin the two unlucky players to miss out. Andre Fletcher kept wickets in place of the ever reliable Ramdin. England meanwhile left out James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, James Tredwell and Ajmal Shahzad from their squad of 15.