Questions Swirl over Gayle's Eligibility

Questions were being asked last night about the eligibility of West Indies opener, Chris Gayle, for the Cable & Wireless Test series against Australia which opens next Thursday in Guyana.

This follows a decision by the 23 year-old Gayle to play in a two-day double-wicket tournament in St Lucia this weekend instead of representing Jamaica against Barbados in the four-day final of the Carib Beer International Challenge, which started yesterday in Bridgetown.

Contacted late yesterday at the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) headquarters in St John's, Antigua, newly appointed CEO, Roger Braithwaite, said the regional cricket administrators were "looking into the matter".

Pressed on the issue, Braithwaite said: "We are aware that it (Gayle's eligibility) has been raised as an issue ... (and) we are looking into the matter ..."

He was at pains to emphasise however, that the double-wicket tournament in St Lucia, which carries prize money of US$175,000, has been "approved and endorsed by the WICB and the ICC (International Cricket Council).

Also, he noted, Gayle -- who will partner sacked West Indies captain, Carl Hooper, in the St Lucia tournament -- agreed to play while having no way of knowing that there would have been a date clash with the Carib Beer Series.

The current clash of dates only arose because of the pushing back of the Carib Beer Series by a week, following the late arrival of India 'A'.

"When Chris agreed to play in St Lucia, the arrangement was that the entire Carib Beer tournament would have been over; it's the delay that has led to this situation," said Braithwaite.

Radio broadcasters covering the Carib Beer final in Barbados were among those who wondered yesterday whether Gayle had disqualified himself by opting to go to St Luicia.

Under WICB eligibility rules, which were revised in early September of last year, a player becomes eligible for selection to the senior WI team when he makes himself "available for selection" to his national team "in a competition immediately preceding the selection of a senior West Indies team".

Last year's revision made it possible for Vasbert Drakes, most notably, to represent the West Indies team on away tours to India and Bangladesh as well as at the recent World Cup in South Africa based purely on his participation in the Red Stripe Bowl limited-overs tournament last August.

After his one-day international debut for the West Indies in 1995, Drakes -- who then spent several years playing professionally in South Africa where the season coincides with that of the Caribbean -- found himself ineligible to play for the West Indies.

The eligibility rules then required that selection to the West Indies team depended on players being available for "all matches" in the regional first-class and limited-overs competition.

In 1995 the non-selection of opener, Desmond Haynes, because of the eligibility rule, led to court action which remains unresolved.

* SOURCE: Jamaica Observer.