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Chris Gayle willing to quit West Indies captaincy

roseboy64

Cricket Web Content Updater
Chris Gayle willing to quit West Indies captaincy and face future without Tests

The West Indies batsman admits he could step down as captain and believes Twenty20 cricket will kill the five-day game

"I wouldn't be so sad," says Gayle when asked how he would feel if Test cricket were to die out. He prefers Twenty20 over the traditional game. About the captaincy he is similarly blase. "To be honest with you, there's a possibility I might give it up – I will be giving it up, shortly."
 

zaremba

Cricketer Of The Year
Chris Gayle willing to quit West Indies captaincy and face future without Tests

The West Indies batsman admits he could step down as captain and believes Twenty20 cricket will kill the five-day game

"I wouldn't be so sad," says Gayle when asked how he would feel if Test cricket were to die out. He prefers Twenty20 over the traditional game. About the captaincy he is similarly blase. "To be honest with you, there's a possibility I might give it up – I will be giving it up, shortly."
Yuck.

He doesn't deserve to captain the West Indies.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
About the captaincy he is similarly blase.
About most things he is, TBH, in my experience.

Can't say I'm all that surprised by anything there. Gayle never strikes me as someone who wants to have The Weight Of The World on his shoulders, and I'm not surprised he was really forced into it.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
TBF, the full thing paints a pretty clear picture of a man who's been essentially forced to do a role that is 100% not natural to him. If you say he doesn't deserve to captain West Indies, I'd say he feels he doesn't deserve to have had this millstone hung around his neck. What's an honour for some is a chore for others.
 

zaremba

Cricketer Of The Year
Deeply depressing to hear any top player thinking it wouldn't be a shame to see T20 wipe out Test cricket.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
Deeply depressing to hear any top player thinking it wouldn't be a shame to see T20 wipe out Test cricket.
Yeah, that statement is on a totally different level to "I prefer T20 and ODIs" (similar to Styris) or that he would retire from tests to play the shorter format.

This is simply, "test cricket is meh to me".

Hard to respect Gayle after that tbh, even considering the **** I imagine he's had to go through with the WICB.
 

zaremba

Cricketer Of The Year
His mood is unlikely to improve by a trip to Durham with miserable freezing weather forecast.
 

Manee

Cricketer Of The Year
I'd like to think I empathise with Gayle here, even if I do not agree with him entirely.
 

Beamer

International Vice-Captain
I think Gayle was having fun with the reporter tbh.

I have followed his entire career closely and I believe he has taken a 'fugg the press' approach since they laid into him just before the 1st test. He was giving deliberately difficult and angry answers IMHO.

Still I believe he was speaking the truth when talking about the captaincy not being natural to him, even if he was exaggerating the whole 'I want to quit asap' thing.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Yeah, that statement is on a totally different level to "I prefer T20 and ODIs" (similar to Styris) or that he would retire from tests to play the shorter format.

This is simply, "test cricket is meh to me".

Hard to respect Gayle after that tbh, even considering the **** I imagine he's had to go through with the WICB.
I think anyone who was honestly expecting every single top-level cricketer to think the way we-who-consider-our-fanship-of-the-highest-quality think was asking far, far too much. Not everyone is going to conform, and the likes of Gayle who want Twenty20 more than they want Tests can jolly well go and have their cake. What we don't want is attitudes like this being encouraged. However, that they were unavoidable in some cases was always 100% inevitable.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
I think anyone who was honestly expecting every single top-level cricketer to think the way we-who-consider-our-fanship-of-the-highest-quality think was asking far, far too much. Not everyone is going to conform, and the likes of Gayle who want Twenty20 more than they want Tests can jolly well go and have their cake. What we don't want is attitudes like this being encouraged. However, that they were unavoidable in some cases was always 100% inevitable.
Sure, but as I said, its one think preferring a format.

Its another being a test captain of one of the traditional and most beloved test cricketing nations in the game's history, saying he wouldn't mind if test cricket was wiped out.

Of course, if his comments were in jest or pulling the interviewer's leg, then its a totally different matter.

But if there was truth to it, its a very serious issue. This isn't Dwayne Smith saying it, its the test captain.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
As I say though - I think we can say fairly safely that Gayle isn't Test captain by choice. He doesn't seem to think he volunteered for this.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Hasn't he already tried, at least once? And BTSOT, he'll be trying again pretty soon.

I've said it before, but Gayle just doesn't fit the traditional archetype of captain, not at all. So him being captain is always going to offend the sensibility of plenty.
 

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