In an astonishing interview on Tuesday, West Indies cricket captain Chris Gayle said that he was no longer interested in the West Indies captaincy or Test cricket, suggesting that Test cricket was too mentally and physically draining. These are his own words about the captaincy, according to UK Guardian reporter, Anna Kessel: “To be honest with you, there’s a possibility I might give it up – I will be giving it up, shortly.”
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) President, Julian Hunte (is he really still President?), who could never really be said to be totally on top of things in his stewardship of the regional game, was reported by Tony Cozier to have been taken aback by Mr Gayle’s comments.
The always forthright Fazeer Mohammed, went onto the front foot on Wednesday, saying that if that’s how Mr Gayle felt, then he “should do West Indies cricket a favour and step down now,” for “[w]ith leadership comes [sic] responsibility and expectations that extend well beyond the boundary ropes, and having made crystal clear that these are burdensome and uncomfortable, he should be prepared to function as a regular player from tomorrow morning.”
One supposes that Mr Mohammed was being kind enough to recognise that Mr Gayle is still an excellent cricketer in spite of some technical deficiencies, and that in spite of his apparent disinterest in the longer, purer form of the game, there is still a place for him in the team.
On Wednesday, on the eve of the Test, Mr Gayle sought to clarify the interview, claiming that he had been misrepresented and stating that he had been speaking very much “as an individual” on the greater appeal of Twenty20 over Test cricket, and his tiredness. Seeking to reassure, he claimed that he still had a job to do, adding, “I am definitely not giving up the captaincy after this Test match. I think I still have a big part to play in West Indies cricket. I always get the support of the team and the management staff.”
Mr Gayle’s spin is not altogether convincing. Regardless of whether he thought that he was speaking as an individual, Mr Gayle has to recognize that he is the West Indies captain and therefore has a responsibility to be careful of what he says. Of course, if he had confirmed what he was reported to have said in the Guardian, then his position would have been untenable and the WICB would have had to sack him.
But the damage has been done. While his candour might be as admirable to some as his uncomplicated approach to batting, and while Mr Cozier says that Mr Gayle does not always articulate his views properly, his timing was, frankly, putrid.
West Indies lost the First Test at Lords’s due to a combination of shoddy batting, woeful catching and uninspiring captaincy. They now face an uphill battle to win the Second Test to retain the Wisden Trophy, so courageously wrested back from the Englishmen, just a short while ago in the Caribbean. The captain’s comments would have done nothing for morale and motivation, especially given the much touted “chemistry between himself and his teammates,” in Mr Cozier’s words.
As Mr Cozier also puts it, “the captain sets the tone for his team.” It is the captain’s job to lead and inspire his players, to give them belief in their mission and to instil the self-belief to achieve their goal. Mr Gayle’s comments that he prefers Twenty20 over the traditional game and does not want the captaincy are simply not helpful.
Clive Lloyd and Vivian Richards, two of our most respected cricketers and captains, have already expressed unease with the fact that Mr Gayle chose to extend his stint in the IPL Twenty20 in South Africa and arrive in England just two days before the Lord’s Test. It could not have set a good example to the rest of the team and the captain’s lack of match readiness showed in his poor all-round performance. Even his body language seemed to say that he should be somewhere else.
It should be noted though, that in reflecting on the burden of losing, Mr Gayle confessed to not knowing “how to deal with it.” Fair enough. Not many of us know how to cope with losing, especially when it becomes a habit. If anything, Mr Gayle’s baring of his soul was perhaps a plea for help, reminiscent of Brian Lara’s infamous cry from the heart in 1995 that cricket was ruining his life. But the WICB has not been good in recent times in providing the type of support needed to keep players mentally in tune with the demands of the modern game.
Nevertheless, regardless of the context and the history of mismanagement by the WICB, these surely must rank as some of the most unfortunate comments by an incumbent captain in any sport and would have affected team mates as much as they struck to the heart of loyal West Indies fans everywhere.
Regardless of the result of the current Test and regardless of what Mr Gayle does with the bat – and many of us would prefer to see him let his bat do the talking – Mr Gayle’s original utterances reveal a dreadful lack of appreciation for the proud heritage of West Indies cricket. He should seriously consider resigning the captaincy after this match.
Perhaps the real issue though is the changing face of international cricket. Certainly, the International Cricket Conference (ICC) will need to find a way to accommodate the different forms of the game in the international calendar and strike a balance between the different sums of money on offer and the all-too-natural wishes of players to maximise their earnings. And the WICB will have to find a better way to manage the human resources at its disposal in order to satisfy the changing demands of both players and fans.
