His team may be in trouble against England already in the second Test at Chester-le-Street. But personally Chris Gayle has drawn too much flak ever since he set foot on English soil.
Chris Gayle arrived two days prior to West Indies’ first Test against England at Lord’s. While he chose to play an additional match for Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders who have been effectively relegated to the bottom of the points table in the IPL 2 season in South Africa, like his team, Gayle has not been able to shake his detractors off.
First it was the England captain Andrew Strauss who took a swipe as the West Indies captain about the fact that he had arrived so late for the tour. Taking a critical view of the comment, Gayle brushed off Strauss’ caustic remarks but what he had to add left an unpleasant taste in the mouth.
Gayle spoke about the growing popularity of the Twenty20 leagues amongst cricketers and that he would not be personally disappointed to see Test cricket die as Twenty20 gains in predominance. Later though, as the furore spread, he stated he was only talking about the end of his Test career while continuing to play Twenty20.
Nevertheless it was a disappointing statement to make as West Indies won the first Test of the previous series with England in Jamaica to sparkling celebrations. It has not gone down well with the likes of Sir Viv Richards and Sir Gary Sobers who both felt that Gayle should remember how he won recognition in the game in the first place.
Already the West Indies are facing a lot of criticism and there are questions being raised why Dwayne Bravo is fit enough to play for the Mumbai Indians in South Africa for the IPL 2 season when his ankle injury was considered still in recovery and therefore, his selection not considered for the Test series in England. It appears perhaps that the WICB could have put sterner restraints on their team members as did Cricket Australia if they were really serious about preserving their players.
Many are blaming the lure for money generated by Twenty20 leagues such as the IPL for the players opting out of more rigourous tours for their country and therefore, ready to forsake the longer version of the game.
There are also doubts surfacing now that he is not taking the captaincy of the West Indies team too seriously as he recently stated in an interview that he would like to give it up. While the West Indies have seen a surge of enthusiasm under his captaincy and he has held the people’s person and team mate tag with a swagger, it is all unraveling rather quickly on this tour and it is barely ten days old!
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