BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Estranged West Indies opener Chris Gayle will meet with West Indies Cricket Board chief executive Ernest Hilaire next Tuesday, to hash out lingering issues that have kept the Jamaican out of the regional side.
An official source confirmed to CMC Sports that the high-profile left-hander would sit down with the regional governing body’s top official, in a crucial meeting scheduled for Antigua.
Gayle was overlooked for the recent one-day and Test series against India after failing to settle differences with WICB management, arising from controversial comments he made in a highly charged interview with a Jamaican radio station earlier this year. Then, Gayle accused the Board of failing to supervise his rehabilitation from injury and was also heavily critical of Hilaire, head coach Ottis Gibson and captain Darren Sammy.
On his return from the Indian Premier League in June, Gayle was asked to explain his comments in a meeting in Kingston, Jamaica attended by the WICB’s director of cricket Tony Howard, team manager Richie Richardson, along with Gibson and Hilaire. Gayle was accompanied by head of regional players’ union WIPA, Dinanath Ramnarine, and vice-president Wavell Hinds.
The meeting was highly contentious and the WICB said subsequently it had ended in “uncertainty”.
Gayle subsequently appealed for CARICOM’s intervention in the dispute, with the regional body indicating they would reactivate the Prime Ministerial sub-committee on cricket, to deal with the issue.
