THE disappointment of a heavy loss to Australia in Sunday's final was eased for the West Indies by the all-round performance that made Chris Gayle the runaway winner of the ICC Champions Trophy Player of the Tournament award.
The tall, 27-year-old opening batsman was comfortably the leading run-scorer with 474 runs at an average of 79.00 and a strike-rate of 92.94 runs per 100 balls.
His three hundreds - 104 not out against Bangladesh in the qualifying round, 101 against England in the group stage and 133 not out against South Africa in the semi-final - was a new record for the five tournaments that began in 1998 in Bangladesh as the Wills International Cup.
Gayle's batting was supplemented by eight wickets with his off-spin and four catches.
The prize was adjudicated by ICC referees Ranjan Madugalle of Sri Lanka, Mike Procter of South Africa and Jeff Crowe of New Zealand who chose the top three players on a 3-2-1 points basis in each of their matches.
Gayle's 12 points were five more than runners-up, Damien Martyn of Australia and Upal Tharanga of Sri Lanka.
He received the Player of the Tournament trophy from former India captain Sunil Gavaskar in the presentation ceremony that followed Sunday's final in Mumbai.
The West Indies also had the top wicket-taker. Jerome Taylor, the 22-year-old fast bowler in his first international tournament, took 13 wickets in seven matches.
The next ICC Champions Trophy is scheduled to be held in Pakistan in 2008.
Player of tournament: Points Table:
Chris Gayle (West Indies), 12 points.
Damien Martyn (Australia) and Upal Tharanga (Sri Lanka) 7.
Stephen Fleming (New Zealand), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI) 6; Daniel Vettori (NZ), Shane Watson (Aus) 5;
Sakib al Hasan (Bangladesh), Jerome Taylor (WI) 4; Dwayne Bravo (WI), Makhaya Ntini (South Africa), Shaun
Pollock (South Africa), Muttiah Muralitharan (SL), Runako Morton (WI), Abdul Razzaq (Pakistan), Munaf