About-face: Gayle offered ODI captaincy
Wed, Jun 13, '07
by RYAN PATRICK
West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) chief executive Bruce Aanensen has been instructed to offer the captaincy of the ODI team to Chris Gayle after the full board today sided with the selection panel's choice of the left-handed opener to lead the side.
The WICB's executive committee (presidents of the territorial boards plus Ken Gordon and Val Banks) had earlier rejected the Gayle nomination on allegations of "indiscipline" but its decision to hand the captaincy to Daren Ganga infuriated the selectors because Ganga was not included in the 14-man squad which was picked and submitted to the board.
The selectors threatened to resign en masse if the WICB interfered with the selection process and forced Ganga's inclusion in the side, prompting this morning's teleconference to try to find a resolution.
During the call, it was made clear that Gayle has never been charged with indiscipline and that interference in the business of picking the team should remain a sacred task of the autonomous selection committee.
Gayle will be asked to take the job for the one-dayers and 20/20 tournament and Shiv Chanderpaul will be approached to be his deputy.
Aanensen has also been directed to discuss the issue with Ganga to try to make sure the controversy does not affect his leadership and performance in the final Test match against England.
A formal announcement will be made when these formalities are done, assuming Gayle and Chanderpaul accepts.
Some directors felt that the selection panel ignored its directive to rebuild by cleaning house and getting rid of players with a history of indiscipline. When the Test team to England was picked, chief selector Gordon Greenidge raised eyebrows with a public statement that rebuilding from scratch was out of the question.
The disagreement escalated even more when captain Ramnaresh Sarwan was forced out of the tour through injury. At first, the WICB management was irked that Greenidge could not be reached to arrange for a replacement and, when Marlon Samuels was picked, that decision also did not sit well with some directors because the feeling was that Samuels was left out in the first place because of disciplinary issues.
Against this backdrop of distrust and frustration, the executive committee decided to take matters into its own hands and send a message to the selection panel that its choices -- the captaincy/vice-captaincy nominations -- were not in keeping with its stated "not business as usual" stance.
Some EC members were also taken aback by the nomination of Ryan Hinds to be vice-captain of the West Indies 'A' team since it was public knowledge that the Barbados captain was being censured for his on-field behaviour during the Carib Beer Challenge Final against Trinidad & Tobago.
One selector -- Clyde Butts -- was present during that game when Hinds led several Barbados players in an on-field protest of several umpiring decisions.
Conflict-of-interest questions are also swirling around the involvement of Gordon Greenidge and Andy Roberts in the Stanford 20/20 operations. At one point recently, the WICB turned up for negotiations with Stanford and found its selectors sitting across the table.
Some board members are also questioning whether Roberts should continue to be a selector while sitting on the cricket committee, arguing that it's a clear conflict since the selectors are accountable to the same cricket committee.
This is the same perceived conflict that forced the demotion of Clive Lloyd from the team coordinator post.
