If you can't ketch Quaco ...

When Professor Hilary Beckles told us that Chris Gayle was a don, and that the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) was trying to eradicate donmanship from the team, he drew the ire of many Caribbean people, including yours truly. The more time has elapsed, the more I think we need to thank Professor Beckles.

Had it not been for his speech, we wouldn't have recognised the board's true intentions regarding Gayle, and we would not be able to put what is happening to Gayle now into proper context.

It can't be mere coincidence that, until now, the board has not said that Professor Beckles was misrepresenting the board. The board hasn't said that the professor was talking nonsense. It has merely said the professor was speaking in a private capacity. End of argument.

We know that people speaking privately tend to speak truthfully, so I suppose the board has left us all to draw our own conclusions.

I don't believe the WICB is trying to get rid of Gayle because he is a don, but because it is sick of the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA). After nine successive trouncings in the arbitration room, the board has had enough. Ramnarine continues to embarrass board directors. He continues to show them up for what they are: an inefficient bunch that keeps free-falling from one mistake to the next. Old-time people say: "If you can't ketch Quaco, ketch him shut (shirt)."

Frying gayle with wipa fat

Gayle is perceived as Ramnarine's greatest ally. He is seen as the one that spreads the gospel of WIPA in the inner sanctum of the Windies dressing room. Gayle is respected by the players, but for this reason he is also feared by the board. He, therefore, is the 'shirt' they go after, because Ramnarine has proven to be too effective a 'Quaco'. Gayle himself is aware of this. He told me in that now-famous interview on KLAS that if they get rid of him, they believe they will lessen WIPA's impact on the other players.

All this to-ing and fro-ing about getting Gayle back into the team, about whom he should meet with, about whom he should apologise to, is a grand smokescreen. The board doesn't want him back! The latest we now hear is that the coach wants an apology from Gayle. Gayle was critical, which is not to say disrespectful, of the coach in that interview. But he wasn't the only one.

Chanderpaul also came out swinging against the coach publicly. He told the world that the coach was interfering with his batting during the World Cup, and that he didn't understand why he should change his batting style after all this time as a professional cricketer.

He also came down hard on the coach's training regimen, complaining that there were times when after a hard day in the gym, he couldn't even lift up his bat in game situations!

Shiv said that at times in the World Cup, players couldn't leave the after-game meetings until they agreed with the coaching staff. Those were startling revelations, yet Shiv is in the West Indies team while Gayle is not!

Ottis Gibson cannot get respect from Gayle now. Lest we forget, Gayle told us that in Gibson's first stint as coach, the series against South Africa in the Caribbean, that spectators in Barbados said loudly that the coach didn't rate Gayle. Gibson, of course, is a Bajan.

Gayle approached Gibson after the game and asked him about it. His exact words were: "Coach, did you say all these things?" The coach denied everything. Gayle then rallied his troops to get behind the coach.

The truth is out

Lo and behold, within a few weeks of the coach's denial, his leaked report to the board after the World Cup showed that Gibson didn't think that highly of Gayle, and felt that he didn't really have leadership qualities! The Barbadian spectators must have been clairvoyant! Maybe Gayle should have asked him thrice!

Gibson came out after the World Cup and blamed his senior players for the loss. As we later heard, the three senior batsmen had their own stress. Sarwan was so wound up and agitated about his place in the team that he couldn't perform. Shiv felt that there was undue interference and Gayle was threatened about not going to the World Cup at all after merely asking that WIPA look over his contract! No wonder they couldn't perform.

Gayle is fighting a losing battle. He will continue to be marginalised once it is felt that his association with Ramnarine is strong. He should never apologise. If anything, Gibson should be apologising to him.

Orville Higgins is a sports journalist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.