KINGSTON-Crick­et su­per­star Chris Gayle has thanked Prime Min­is­ter of Ja­maica Por­tia Simp­son-Miller for her role in his re­in­state­ment on the re­gion­al team.

Gayle was banned from the West In­dies side for more than a year due to a dis­pute be­tween him­self and the West In­dies Crick­et Board (WICB).

The West In­dies open­ing bats­man, who re­turned to Ja­maica Wednes­day af­ter the ICC Twen­ty20 tour­na­ment, com­mend­ed Prime Min­is­ter Simp­son Miller for suc­cess­ful­ly lob­by­ing the board on his be­half.

"To have been out of West In­dies crick­et for a year and a half was dev­as­tat­ing for me, but that is life and we have to deal with it, and then even­tu­al­ly it paid off." Gayle told a press con­fer­ence at the Nor­man Man­ley In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port, Wednes­day.

"Thanks to our own Prime Min­is­ter Por­tia Simp­son-Miller, who ac­tu­al­ly de­liv­ered on what she planned for, of hav­ing me back in the team".

Gayle's dis­pute with the WICB stemmed from pub­lic crit­i­cism lev­elled against head coach Ot­tis Gib­son and cap­tain Dar­ren Sam­my.

How­ev­er, he said he was hap­py to be back on the team, con­tribut­ing in all ar­eas of the sport.

"I am a true pro­fes­sion­al, so I keep it re­al and what I was there to do I did it. It was busi­ness, just one aim, one ob­jec­tive, which we ac­com­plished," said the big-hit­ting Gayle. CMC