Gayle’s participation still in limbo

Chris Gayle, the former West Indies captain, has signed a CARICOM-brokered agreement with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), but with a ‘side-letter’ whose contents are yet to be disclosed. “Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves [of St Vincent] provided a copy of Gayle’s ‘side letter’,” a WICB release said. “The matter was discussed and the Board will respond to the Prime Minister shortly.” The Jamaica Gleaner reported that the agreement, which was drafted by CARICOM in a bid to solve the impasse between the former captain and the board, had been signed by the WICB a few weeks ago.

 

However, questions still remain over any Gayle comeback to the West Indies side. Gayle is contracted to represent Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL from April 4 to May 27 and Somerset in England’s domestic Twenty20 tournament later on in the summer. A resolution to the year-long dispute between Gayle and the WICB was expected at last Monday’s high-level meeting in St Vincent, where no decision could be reached. It was then speculated that Gayle would be available for selection during the current series with Australia. Before that meeting, the Jamaica Gleaner had reported that Gayle was likely to either submit an apology or retract his comments made against the board and the coach Ottis Gibson during a radio interview.