England coach Duncan Fletcher says his team will play to its strength. (AP Picture)

by EZRA STUART in Guyana

CARIBBEAN cricket fans cried from Georgetown to Grenada yesterday
as the West Indies' World Cup hopes were virtually wiped away after the regional team crashed to a third successive
Super 8 defeat.

Not even the presence of the biggest crowd of the tournament so far, over
12 000 partisan supporters, who braved early morning showers and had to wait in long queues to get into the ground, could lift the West Indies to a winning performance as they surrendered meekly to Sri Lanka by a whopping 113 runs.

The defeat followed similar shameful losses to defending champions Australia and New Zealand last week in Antigua and leaves the Windies with only a slim chance of qualifying for the semi-finals.

After the match, captain Brian Lara said he was "an eternal optimist" and believed there was still an outside chance for the woeful Windies outfit should they win their remaining three matches against South Africa, Bangladesh and England and results in other matches go in their favour.

"It is a bit unfortunate. We didn't play to the best of our ability. Even the bowlers looked flat after four games in ten days, but our focus now must be on ourselves and how we can pick ourselves up and fight. You never know what can happen in the World Cup," he said.

The Windies' woes were caused by former Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya, who hit a magnificent century, which he rated as "one of his best", to lead his team to an imposing total of 303 for five in 50 overs.

After scoring his 25th One-Day International century, Jayasuriya returned with the ball and captured four wickets as the hosts capitulated for 190 in 44.3 overs.

The West Indies' fielding was also ragged and the body language among the players suggested that they were resigned to another defeat.

"I feel terrible. This is the worst day I ever had at cricket, to see the West Indies lose for the first time at this beautiful new ground," an irate fan said.

Another was just as disappointed and depressed.

"I am very dejected.
We came up here early from 7 o'clock to support the West Indies but they didn't give us a lot to cheer," the fan said.

"It wasn't good enough. Lara didn't set good fields; the boys fielded badly and dropped too many catches. They must put their heads together and play as a team," a frustrated
woman said.

"[Shivnarine] Chanderpaul and [Ramnaresh] Sarwan started batting well, but they waited too late to hit sixes," added another supporter.