West Indies Players Association boss, Dinanath Ramnarine believes the West Indies team will be at full strength when Australia visits the Caribbean in May this year.

Ramnarine was responding to reports that top batsmen, captain Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul could miss the opening two Tests, due to their commitments with the Indian Professional League (IPL).

"I am not in authority to give too much details on this matter but what I can tell you is that the West Indies will have their full strength team available for the Australian series," Ramnarine said yesterday.

"I am aware of the situation with Gayle, Sarwan and Chanderpaul and this morning (Tuesday) I made a call to WICB, CEO Dr. Donald Peters to inquire from him what was the latest with the situation and will keep abreast of the situation."

The first Test bowls off in Jamaica from May 22-26 with the second carded for Antigua from May 30 to June 3. The final Test begins in Barbados at Kensington Oval from June 12.

Reports suggested the trio were likely to miss the first two Tests with the IPL running from April 18 to June 1.

Ramnarine said despite the scheduling problems, he was pleased to see cricketers being remunerated properly.

"While I admit that this new wave of Twenty20 cricket is good for the game, I think that a balance must be reached. It is good to see that great sums of money are now being offered to players to play in this tournament," the former West Indies leg-spinner said.

"At the end of the day, one has to put food on their table and people must be sensitive to this. Too many of our former cricketers have fallen on hard times, since the end of their playing days."

The IPL is a franchise-oriented Twenty20 competition organised by the Indian Cricket Board, with official backing from the Inter-national Cricket Council.