Gayle wants to give up captaincy; WICB surprised

LONDON: Chris Gayle has taken the West Indies cricket by surprise by stating he would like to step down as captain.

Gayle, after his brief stint with Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL), is leading the side on the two-Test England tour.

'To be honest, there's a possibility I might give it up (captaincy) - I will be giving it up, shortly,' Gayle was quoted as saying in The Guardian.

The Jamaican's participation in the IPL has come under criticism and more so, after West Indies lost the first Test with 10 wickets.

'They (the media) make it look like I want to choose IPL over this (Test). That's why I said everybody knew this was always going to be the situation, so I don't see why people make it a big fuss and a big deal.'

Gayle went on to say that he never took up captaincy willingly but was persuaded into the job on a temporary basis, standing in for the injured Ramnaresh Sarwan.

'That's when it all started. We won the series and then I said to them, whenever Sarwan is fully fit, I am ready to step down. Maybe they saw something different, something totally different and they asked me to be captain.

'I thought hard about it. I didn't want to be captain, I wanted to have more free time. I didn't want that added pressure at that particular time, but they actually insist, insist, insist, so I said OK. So I thought, just get on with it.'

A shocked president of the West Indies Cricket Board, Julian Hunte, called Gayle's comments 'unfortunate'.

'This is bound to have an effect on the whole spirit of the team,' Hunte said. 'It is an unfortunate development.'

'I recall that there was speculation in some of the English media that Chris might resign after he returned from the IPL to join the team just before the Test but I took it as pure speculation,' Hunte said.

'There was certainly nothing on that score from the captain himself.'

'I keep in touch with the manager on a regular basis and he did not give the impression of anything untoward.'