The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : WICB froze me out, says Gayle

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WICB froze me out, says Gayle

GROS ISLET: Chris Gayle claimed on Wednesday he had been frozen out by the West Indies Cricket Board and was left with no option but to choose the money-spinning IPL over national team duty.

The former captain said he was forced to accept an offer to play for the Royal Challengers Bangalore because he was not sure about his place in the West Indies team, following his axing for the opening matches of Pakistan's tour.

West Indies officials reacted angrily to Gayle's decision, and said they were less than pleased with the manner in which he handled the situation.

They begrudgingly gave him a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to participate in the IPL.

But a few hours later Gayle blasted the WICB in a revealing radio interview from India.

He said after getting injured during the World Cup, he paid all expenses for medical treatment in Britain before returning home to Jamaica.

“A group of players were selected for a training camp in Barbados, and I never got a call, nobody spoke to me, and I decided to leave it alone,” Gayle said in an hour-long interview on Jamaican radio station, KLAS Sports.

‘I was stunned'

“I continued my training programme, and I came to find out via the media that a Twenty20 squad was announced, and a One-day International squad was announced, and I was stunned when I saw a big headline in the newspapers, ‘Gayle, Sarwan, Chanderpaul dropped.'”

Gayle said he was puzzled because no WICB official had actually called to check-up on him.

He felt the least they could have done was to call him to the training camp at the West Indies High Performance Centre in Bridgetown, and assess his fitness before making a decision about the team. — AFP

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