The enigma that is Chris Gayle

[shankycricket]

Oh Dear

[HarryPotter]

I think its a little harsh to facepalm the general principle that the best player in the world might not be one of the best 11 players for a team. We have all worked with talented arseholes who may be great in themselves but whose presence means the team as a whole perfom at a lower level.

[DiligentDefence]

Looking from the outside I would say that the West Indies bowling and fielding has improved over the past couple of years, and I do put this down to improved fitness and practice. However the batting has not shown the same improvement, in fact it has probably regressed, and this is why the West Indies have not progressed up the rankings. A fully firing Gayle would certainly help here but not at the cost of the improvements in other areas.

[braveneutral]

The Natwest three should have hired you as their lawyer Harry.

[shankycricket]

I dont see how a player who has just given up a county contract to play for his country (despite knowing that he might be sued)can affect a team negatively. Clearly he is passionate about playing for the Windies.

[Making_Splinters]

It seems to me that there is a concern within the WICB that Gayle and Sammy's differences might be counter productive in the dressing room and they are wrestling between this and the undeniable advantages Gayle's return will bring to the side.

Or perhaps they are worried that Gayle - who is very much in the mould of a traditional English pro ala Shaw - might introduce 'dangerous' ideas to the younger members of the side and show them there is another way aside from suffering WICB incompetancy much like Narine has woken up to.

I wonder how a player like Lara would have responded to the enviroment Gayle found himself in.

[shankycricket]

Then they should drop Sammy.

[GGAS]

I dont see how a player who has just given up a county contract to play for his country (despite knowing that he might be sued)can affect a team negatively. Clearly he is passionate about playing for the Windies.

He could affect morale, be bad for the dressing room etc.

[mikesiva]

The WICB are looking for reasons not to pick Gayle....

http://www.espncricinfo.com/westindies/ ... 64438.html

"The board looks forward to Mr Gayle's indication of his date of availability to meet with the WICB along with Prime Ministers Honourable Baldwin Spencer [who is the Antigua and Barbuda prime minister, and chairman of CARICOM's Prime Ministerial Sub-committee on cricket] and Honourable Ralph Gonsalves [St Vincent and the Grenadines' prime minister] as had been agreed to clear up residual matters prior to his return to the team."

[shankycricket]

I dont see how a player who has just given up a county contract to play for his country (despite knowing that he might be sued)can affect a team negatively. Clearly he is passionate about playing for the Windies.

He could affect morale, be bad for the dressing room etc.

So could anyone. I will say Sammy is weakening the team by his presence. He has a decent average but if he is among the three best pacers in WI, then its a sad day for WI cricket.

[andy]

your darren sammy vendetta is boring now.....

the guy has decent record in test cricket with the ball, the players look like they actually want to play for him, and to be honest, whenever he plays, he picks up wickets

[shankycricket]

Add me to your foes list then. I dont have a vendetta. He is not a bad bowler but I dont think he is good enough to be an automatic pick which is the case because he is the captain.

[mikesiva]

Add me to your foes list then. I dont have a vendetta. He is not a bad bowler but I dont think he is good enough to be an automatic pick which is the case because he is the captain.

I agree with you there....

I also feel he's part of the problem re Gayle. His comments at the press conference about Gayle were hardly welcoming him back into the fold. Hunte, Hilaire and Sammy seem to be a part of the St Lucia mafia who are determined to make Gayle's return to the WI fold as difficult as possible. They may even be trying to frustrate him into quitting the team before the end of the year.

Any captain who truly had his team's welfare at heart would look at the current opening batsmen who are averaging in the low 20s, and would try to accommodate the return of an opening batsmen who averages in the 40s. Maybe Sammy sees Gayle as a threat to his authority in the Windies side....

I think Sammy should give up the captaincy to Kirk Edwards.

[shankycricket]

Let me repeat the question that I had asked about Sammy.
If he is that good a bowler,why wasnt he in the side before he became the captain? In fact,he had a much better record with the ball before taking over the captaincy. Yet no one rated him then. Even Nelon Pascal and Brendon Bess were preferred to Sammy for the test series against SA in 2010. And he had a better record then. But people only seem to have started rating him now that he is captain even though he is doing worse as a bowler than previously.
This is what I find strange


And as far as his record is concerned, his wkts per match record is poor. He has a decent average but he's not gonna win you test matches.

[ntini77]

The funny thing is, despite appearing fairly innocuous, Sammy will probably be our best bowler against England.