It’s up to the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to decide Chris Gayle’s future as West Indies cricket captain.
So said Clive Lloyd, perhaps the West Indies’ most successful cricket skipper ever.
Although Lloyd, who led the West Indies team during most of its glory days as cricket world champions, was careful not to criticise Gayle’s tactics as captain, he said the fact that the region’s side wasn’t performing well meant that the WICB had a decision to make about Gayle.
“He seems to be a nice enough guy, but I think you have to think ‘Is he serious enough?’ and that’s what they have to assess,” Lloyd said in New York yesterday while on his way to South Africa to attend a meeting of the International Cricket Council.
“As of late we haven’t done too well, so I think the board eventually will have to look at that,” he told the SATURDAY SUN in an exclusive interview. “At the moment we have to look forward and the board will have to take that decision.”
As Lloyd sees it, the cricket selectors must have a voice in deciding whether Gayle should remain or whether someone else, perhaps a younger player, should be chosen to take the team on a winning path. The question for the West Indies, he added, was whether the region would follow the example set by South Africa, who chose a young player to lead the country.
“Do we go with him (Gayle) or do we look for somebody, like South Africa did, a young guy who has the respect and would take our cricket forward”?
But selecting a young player wouldn’t be new to the West Indies.
Lloyd was quick to point out that when he was chosen to lead the side in the 1970s, he didn’t have any experience as captain.
“When I was made captain, I hadn’t captained anybody, and then they had a captain for 11 years,” was the way he put it. “So, if they want to go down that road again, I think they would have to make a serious decision in that respect. If they think that Gayle is not the person, probably we will have to do what they did with me and give a younger player who they feel is good enough to hold his place, who can command respect – and the board must give him the support.”
The former captain, who is widely respected in and out of international cricket, was quick to call for greater discipline among the players, saying it “has got to be an important part of our cricket”.