Hilaire avoids Gayle clash

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) chief executive, Ernest Hilaire, has refused to be drawn into a war of words with Chris Gayle, following several charges levelled at the WICB by the talismanic opener.

Gayle, in an interview last week with Jamaican radio station KLAS, accused the WICB of playing no role in his recovery from injury and of excluding him from the first two one-day internationals (ODI) of the ongoing Pakistan series without informing him.

The 31-year-old Jamaican was speaking in a tell-all interview after the board said they were disappointed in his decision to make himself unavailable for the Pakistan series, in favour of playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

"I'm not going to respond. There's a very simple reason. We can dispel all that Chris said by releasing the letters and emails. But we should not do that," Hilaire said during the second ODI recently.

"You communicate with a player, you ask for his opinions, you ask for him to account on certain statements he made, you ask him what's his position on certain things and you expect to be treated with a certain degree of confidence.

"You expect when the coach pulls a player aside and speaks to him there is a certain level of respect for that conversation."

Gayle claimed he had been focused on playing for West Indies during the Pakistan series, but was forced to take up the IPL offer after being excluded from the West Indies squad.

He said he had undertaken all the costs for his treatment for an abdominal injury picked up during the recent World Cup, and also claimed that the board had not enquired about his fitness during his recovery period.

Hilaire, however, said Gayle was being poorly advised.

"Against that background I'm not going to try to prove Chris Gayle wrong. What's more important is to state that we're very disappointed in the way in Chris has decided to respond," the top WICB official contended.

"I think he is being ill advised. We've worked exceedingly hard to reach out to Chris - numerous attempts - letters, phone calls, emails. He is being advised and he will act in the way in which he sees best."

However, in response to Gayle's charge that fitness was now the highest benchmark for selection, Hilaire said the WICB had a strict policy in that regard.

"If there is a problem with us stressing fitness I make no apologies for it. We need to have fitness as a priority in the team," Hilaire said.

"If there are rules being put in place now as to what we expect of players, the kind of disposition and somebody does not like it I'm very sorry, it has to be established that this is how we're going to move forward."