Gayle Blasts Windies' Team Policy
The Age
Saturday July 5, 2008
CHRIS Gayle has warned the West Indies could face a mass player exodus unless local administrators improve their practices.
A day after the West Indies Cricket Board president Julian Hunte criticised his players for their underwhelming performances in the one-day series against Australia, Gayle returned serve at local administrators, and most notably the national selection panel.Gayle has been frustrated over the move of selectors to use the one-day series against Australia as a testing ground for the Champions Trophy. The veteran batsman insists the West Indies should have fielded their strongest side against the world champion, as opposed to the smattering of rookies who have failed to perform in the first three matches of the series. Gayle said that the board had flown only 13 players to St Kitts, despite giving an undertaking to field a 14-man squad for the final two matches against Australia."You really want an experienced team against Australia, the No. 1 team," Gayle said. "If not, then it's going to be even more difficult to beat them. I thought it was the wrong time to try these things and to experiment a lot."It was totally the wrong time to do that. You should actually try to look at your best team rather than just give guys an opportunity and just push them in against Australia. "We should be looking to win the series, but it's already gone and so we have to deal with it. It is really disappointing as captain. These are the things I have to deal with."Gayle said that unless administrators tried to fix the structure of the game in the Caribbean, more players would be lost to overseas competitions such as the Indian Cricket League and county cricket. The Windies have already lost Corey Collymore and Pedro Collins, who signed with Sussex and Surrey respectively, as Kolpak players, as well as Tino Best to the ICL."If they aren't careful, we're going to lose players when these things come around," Gayle said. "If the structure doesn't get right, we're going to lose a lot of players. All those guys have (already) gone to different leagues, ICL and some playing Kolpak. We're going to find ourselves losing a lot of players. And who is to tell, we might just find ourselves right down there."If the spat between Gayle and the board was not bad enough, West Indies cricket yesterday was dealt another blow, with news that the International Cricket Council had upheld the two-year ban on Marlon Samuels for accepting payment from an Indian gambler.Samuels' lawyer, Churchill Neita, said his client would now file a judicial review in the Antiguan courts next week, along with an injunction that would allow him to play while the case was being considered. Samuels had hoped to play in the series against Australia, but will now target the Champions Trophy in September."It was a disappointing outcome," Neita said of the ruling by the ICC's code of conduct commission. "But we firmly believe in Marlon's innocence."
© 2008 The Age
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