Betfair | Is Chris Gayle the most bizarre appointment as captain ever?

Is Chris Gayle the most bizarre appointment as captain ever?

Pablo Luna - Moonlighting for Betfair. Pablo has plenty of praise for the talent and flair of Chris Gayle but wonders whether he has any of the other necessary qualities to be a good cricket captain

West Indies entertain Sri Lanka in the third and final ODI at the Beausejour Stadium in St Lucia on Tuesday 15 April 2008 where West Indies skipper Chris Gayle will be looking for a rarity - a third successive victory. Betair odds show that West Indies are trading at [1.84] with Sri Lanka at [2.12].

It has been difficult to judge the merits of the ODI series so far, a six off the last ball, (which was a gentle full toss) secured the win in the first ODI followed by the unconvincing D/L method win where they got providential with the rain. The 2-Match Test Series between two mediocre sides ended in a 1-1 draw. The West Indies were on a long losing streak of seven consecutive Test series and Sri Lanka have never had a series win in the region.

In the new millennium the West Indies have lurched from one disaster to another. Accepting that the prime cause of decline extends beyond the field of play, West Indies cricket have been in torment with deficiencies right through the team in recent years, whether in skill levels, experience or attitude. The casual nature of their cricket being the single most detrimental aspect! Add to that a total lack of respect to authority and you have a soup of consequential mediocrity. I have explained this demise further at: http://betting.betfair.com/cricket/bat-and-ball/basketball-and-rap-music-are-k-071207.html

So what should the West Indies Cricket Board do about it? Find the most expressionless, casual, lackadaisical-looking Jamaican, find someone irresponsibly reckless with breathtaking talent. Find an impulsive gambler with an all or nothing style but most importantly someone who disagrees with policies of the WCIB. Chris Gayle (born 21 September 1979 in Kingston, Jamaica) was duly appointed captain and keeps the job over fit- again and in-form Ramnaresh Sarwan.

I have a template that covers the qualities of a captain and apart from talent, Gayle does not tick any of the other boxes! He does not appear confident with people and is not a leader and though bold in his batting, he is withdrawn away from it. He is not tactically astute, his test batting proves that! He is a muttering whispering dissenter and does not carry the board/team ethic onto the field. He is more mutineer than captain material and I have seen no evidence of him turning poacher to gamekeeper. Of course he had been given the job because of lack of candidates but I would have still gone elsewhere as 'marking time' in sport is actually going backwards!

I found it strange and poignant that after ill-discipline and infractious behaviour by West Indies players during the World Cup he was totally against any sort of curfew (11.30pm) on their subsequent tour to England. He remonstrated "I don't agree with the curfew but it's team policy so you have to go along with it. If it was in my hands I would have let guys be free to do what they want to in the lead up to the first Test". Do what they want? He is so casual that he is anti-discipline. Surely he must recognise modern day demands and that includes changing the West Indies relaxed approach into a professional mode (see Shivnarine Chanderpaul)? Imagine Michael Vaughan saying he thinks Freddie Flintoff should be allowed to do what he wants before a Test? The mind boggles!

I genuinely enjoy Chris Gayle as a cricketer! Tall and imposing at the crease, he loves to carve through the covers off either foot, and has the ability to annihilate the figures of even the most economical opening bowlers. His belligerent approach includes poking fun at the textbook with total disregard for footwork. The 28-year-old hard-hitting left-handed opening batsman is the only player to score centuries at Test, One-Day and Twenty20 level and this makes him a fearful opponent as a genuine one-day allrounder (though he was a disturbing failure in the World Cup in the Caribbean). He is tailor made for the IPL especially with his effective right-arm off spin.

Looking at his statistics it demonstrates that he is predominantly an ODI player but capable of playing Test Cricket. His apathetic nature or batting will not be affected by the captaincy, you sense he will carry on in his own sweet way but I wager that he will not be captain 12 months from now! Check him out on: http://content-www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/51880.html

15 April 2008 / About Paul Moon

Tags: Chris Gayle, cricket capatins, Michael Vaughan, West Indies ODI Team / Digg It / Del.icio.us / StumbleUpon / reddit

Comments (2)

I think you wrote this article with the sole intention of being controversal; as it will draw attention to you one way or the other.

leonard cowan | 17 April 2008

You are being ridiculous. why dont you read what the team-mates of Gayle think of his captaincy

http://content-www.cricinfo.com/westindies/content/story/303007.html
"Ramnaresh Sarwan has praised Chris Gayle for the way he handled the leadership of the West Indies team in the recent series of limited-overs matches in England and Ireland. Gayle was appointed to lead the West Indies side after Sarwan injured his shoulder in a fall during the second Test against England and had to return home.

"I think he was really outstanding, and you have to commend Chris for the way he handled the team during the ODI series," Sarwan said at the launch of the Digicel youth coaching clinics at the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies. "Obviously, he was under a little bit of pressure from the West Indies Cricket Board, and the way he came out showed his maturity, and I thought everyone supported him well which is really good to see."

Though the selection committee had picked Gayle to captain the limited-overs side, the executive committee of the WICB ignored his nomination, and instead chose Daren Ganga, who had led the Test side in the absence of Sarwan. An emergency meeting of all the directors of the WICB then overturned the decision of the executive committee, and Gayle responded by leading the side to a 2-1 series win over England and to the top of the table in a quadrangular series in Ireland.

Sarwan noted that Gayle's "super cool" demeanour more often than not belied the ability and qualities that his team-mate possesses. "When you look at Chris the individual, lots of people have a lot to say about him and his body language on and off the field," Sarwan said. "But it just goes to show that you should never judge a book by its cover. I think he has shown his commitment to West Indies cricket and the public should not really judge an individual who has wholeheartedly supported West Indies cricket."

Sarwan joins Gayle and Denesh Ramdin in Barbados for the first in the series of Digicel coaching clinics that will take place throughout the region over the next three-and-a-half weeks.

Lennon | 01 May 2008