Former West Indies wicketkeeper, Jeffrey Dujon reckons he would not have handled the grievances between Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan in the manner in which it unfolded.
Gayle took to social media and unleashed a verbal attack on his former West Indies teammate, Sarwan after he was released from the Jamaica Tallawahs, a team where Sarwan functions as the Assistant Coach, for this year’s Caribbean Premier League.
When asked by veteran radio personality, Andrew Mason on his radio programme, Mason and Guests, Tuesday night, as to what advice he would give Gayle following the incident Dujon responded, “I’d have to ask him first of all what the whole situation is and it goes without saying that’s not the way I would have approached it.”
The 63-year-old Jamaican admitted that he has not seen the video, however, but posited that he does not know if the allegations made about Sarwan are true.
“He [Gayle] is getting to a stage now where his age will be a factor. I don’t know what his relationship with other people are apart from Sarwan which seems to be not so good and I don’t know if the things he said about Sarwan are true so it would be hard for me to have an opinion on that. I have no personal or inside knowledge on that,” Dujon stated.
Dujon, who played 81 Tests and 169 One Day Internationals believes that the way players of this calibre engage situations of this nature is distasteful but suggested the medium for these outbursts are readily available, unlike in the past.
“This is not the first time something like this has happened, this goes way back in terms of even in my time… in terms when your career ended but in those days people didn’t have the media as they have now to voice their opinions as they have now and back in those days I suppose we were a different generation anyways but it’s sad when someone’s career, someone who has been outstanding in one way or another end their career on a sour note like that but that’s the world today, people have the social media and the platform to speak their minds,” the commentator pointed out.
Dujon added, “It’s a symptom of the world we live in today, in the sense that to a larger extent we have lost the art of conversation because people don’t talk to each other anymore, it’s more texting and tweeting and all this sort of thing and they just don’t see the need to sit down and talk to each other.”
Only recently, Marlon Samuels also took to social media and bombarded West Indies Test captain, Jason Holder for the way he was treated prior to the 50-over World Cup.
