By Tony Cozier
In CHESTER-LE-STREET
Until Chris Gayle expanded yesterday on his previous day’s provocative comments on his future and that of the game itself, it seemed as if the West Indies would enter today’s crucial second Test under a captain who didn’t want to be captain in a form of the game that no longer interested him.
The captain sets the tone for his team. Gayle’s problem is that often, as genuine as his views are, he does not always properly articulate them.
As he indicated yesterday, what he should have stressed in his interview in the Guardian newspaper on Tuesday was that he was speaking on his own behalf, not as West Indies captain or anything else.
“I don’t actually see myself playing Test cricket for a long period of time but I think Test cricket will always be there,” he told the British media yesterday, assuaging the shockwaves generated by what was reported two days earlier. “Still, since 20/20 cricket came on board it’s made a huge impact, it’s brilliant and the games have been sold out.”
Gayle said he was still keen to try to “rebuild West Indies cricket” which he had enjoyed, “each and every bit of it”. It was just that his “gut feeling” was that it would be superseded by 20/20.
“Test cricket I look at differently but I don’t see it as long term for me,” he said.
And he didn’t expect his players to approach the Test with any less commitment that normal. If anything, it would not be surprising if the general uproar over his opinion is a motivating factor.
The truth is that he would have no more considered moderating his views than he would toning down his biff-bang batting style.
Pressed for an opinion, as he was by an obviously smart interviewer during the week, he gave it openly, without concern for the possible repercussions.
In the same way when batting, he opens his shoulders and thumps a swinging half-volley first ball, whether out of the ground or into the clutches of a waiting fielder.
It is, he pleads, just the way he is. What you see with Chris, as he refers to himself, is what you get. There are other prominent present players with a similar attitude.
West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Julian Hunte said he was taken aback by Gayle’s reported revelations that Twenty20 now meant more to him than Tests and that he would soon be quitting the captaincy.
Ill-timed as they were, it should have come as no surprise to Hunte.
Gayle had already put forward his resignation, last August, after he was summoned to a WICB meeting in St. Lucia, supposedly to hear a case against him for openly and sharply criticising team selection. It was clear he did not regard the position as a sacred duty.
As it was, Hunte persuaded him to stay on. He is now wondering whether he did the right thing.
Gayle cast the dye for his future manner as soon as he controversially came to the captaincy, for the limited-overs series on the previous England tour in 2007.
He was chosen by the selectors to take over after Brian Lara’s appointed successor, Ramnaresh Sarwan, dislocated his shoulder in the second Test.
But the nomination was rejected by the board, in favour of Vice-captain Daren Ganga, until a public outcry led to Gayle’s reinstatement.
Gayle said he was “hurt and disappointed” by the rebuff and was bitingly critical of the board’s failure to get the one-day specialists to England in time for warm-up matches, having earlier slated the management’s stringent curfew times.
Ken Gordon, the Trinidadian media executive who was then WICB president, demanded a public apology for “his unfortunate and ill-advised statements”, calling it “totally unacceptable conduct”.
Gayle bluntly refused.
“I always stand up for what I believe in and when I’m wrong, I’m wrong and when I’m right, I’m right,” he said in language recognisable as that used this week. “If there are going to be any consequences you have to stand up and deal with it as a man. I’m always ready for anything.”
Gordon soon resigned, Hunte took over and the matter rested.
Ironically, Gayle has been more successful than most of the seven captains since Viv Richards retired in 1991. While the team remains near the bottom of the International Cricket Council (ICC) league table, his winning percentage in 13 Tests (23 per cent) is better than Brian Lara’s, Jimmy Adams’, Carl Hooper’s and Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s.
He presided over victories against South Africa in Port Elizabeth (the first in South Africa) in his first match in charge and over Sri Lanka and, most recently and famously, over England in the Caribbean to regain the Wisden Trophy after nine years. Australia were pressed hard for a 2-0 win in three Tests at home last season.
There are not many who can similarly relate the West Indies 20/20 results, a point Gayle needs to keep in mind,
Yet there is a chemistry between himself and his teammates that has been noted by leading player, from Chanderpaul through to the least experienced such as Fidel Edwards and Lionel Baker.
For all his protestations about Test cricket and the captaincy, his own game has flourished since he came to the position. He averages 47.5 in 13 Tests as skipper, 38.28 earlier.
The three-day debacle at Lord’s in the first Test last week, and the lead-up to it, was the first indication that Gayle was enraptured by the Twenty20 game and falling out with Test cricket.
Given permission by the WICB to join the team three days before the Test, he delayed his return to play one last match for the Kolkata Knight Riders. It was a situation that was given its voice in the much discussed interview.
The US$1 million he picked up for the victory over England in the Stanford US$20 million extravaganza last November and his US$700,000 IPL contract were strong reasons for the switch.
His stated cause is as much the intensity of the international calendar and his increasing number of injuries. Such a complaint is shared by many and needs to occupy the attention of the administrators and everyone concerned about the future.
