WEST Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Dave Cameron said Wednesday that Chris Gayle’s public criticism of the omissions of Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard from the squad to next month’s World Cup has been referred to its Disciplinary Tribunal.
Cameron revealed during a wide-ranging interview on Sportsmax, the cable tv sports channel out of Jamaica, that Gayle had breached the code of conduct clause in the tour contract by his comments. But he did not know whether Tribunal chairman Justice Adrian Saunders, 61, a Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) judge from St.Vincent and the Grenadines, had yet summoned a meeting to deal with the case.
It last convened a year ago over a “conduct unbecoming” charge against Deandra Dottin of the West Indies women’s team in an incident during the Tri-Nation Twenty20 tournament in Barbados in 2013. The outcome was Dottin’s suspension for the tour of New Zealand last February and March.
Desmond Haynes, the former Barbados and West Indies opening batsman, one of the five Tribunal members, said yesterday he had not yet been contacted about sitting on the Gayle case.
Other members of the tribunal are CCJ judge Madame Justice Denise Bernard, Rev.Dr.Lloyd Barrett and Courtney Walsh, the former Jamaica and West Indies captain.
After his match-winning 90 off 41 balls that led the West Indies to victory in the second Twenty20 International that secured the three-match series against South Africa, Gayle repeatedly referred to the exclusion of Bravo and Pollard as “ridiculous” and said it smacked of “victimisation”. Both were on the ODI team that prematurely quit the tour of India in October, Bravo as captain.
Cameron and chairman of selectors Clive Lloyd have both strongly denied that the India situation had any bearing on the selection.
Lloyd , the West Indies’ longest serving and most successful captain, took up his position as chief selector last August.
He said Gayle’s outburst was “not in keeping with (our) standards” and called for the implementation of a code of conduct.
“Anybody can now say what they like about selection,” he charged in an interview with Sky Sports in England. “I think that’s wrong and I hope they rectify it as soon as possible.”
Aged 35, with 103 Tests, 261 ODIs, 45 Twenty20 Internationals and a combined 37 international hundreds to his name, Gayle is a towering figure in the game.
A former West Indies captain, he has been involved in several disputes with the WICB, the last leading to his absence from the team for 18 months over his refusal to withdraw criticism of head coach Ottis Gibson and WICB chief executive Ernest Hilaire.
