(WICB) St John’s, Antigua – The WICB Board of Directors at a meeting in St Lucia took the following decision with regard to Chris Gayle:
Having received reports and reviewed correspondence between Chris Gayle and the West Indies Cricket Board and the West Indies Team Management and taking into consideration public statements made by Gayle with regard to the Board and its officers, the Board requires that Gayle withdraws his comments in order to be considered for selection to the West Indies team.
Further however, the Board recognizes Mr. Gayle as an experienced player who can contribute meaningfully to the performance of the West Indies team. The Board, in the continued hope that Mr. Gayle complies with the standards and requirements set by the Board, and in response to a request by the JCA, unanimously agreed that it will seek the services of a facilitator to assist Mr. Gayle in complying with the requirements of the Board.
The decision has been communicated to Mr. Gayle and the Board awaits his response.
Legendary former West Indies captain and current Director of the WICB Clive Lloyd believes that the Board’s position of requiring a withdrawal of the statements is reasonable and fair.
“First of all it is disappointing that the matter has gone on for as long as it has, what we need now is closure and to be fair anyone of whom those comments were made would have a right to take umbrage,” Lloyd said.
“Withdrawing the comments would be the intelligent thing to do to get the issue resolved and have every one move on,” reiterated the former captain of the all conquering West Indies side.
“We need senior players to be in the set up to drive the progress forward and any team would love to entertain Gayle in their set up but under the right circumstances,” Lloyd reasoned.
“Now that we are looking like we can do much better in the future, we need all hands on deck and we need everyone to be working with each other in a harmonious way,” Lloyd said.
The appointment of a facilitator, if necessary, will be made following response from Mr. Gayle.
