A defiant Chris Gayle says he is not stepping down from the West Indies captaincy after the side’s embarrassing loss to Australia in the first Test, and feels he is the right person to lead the team out of the crisis.
Gayle said calls for his head have been growing after West Indies’ humiliating innings and 65-run drubbing by Australia at Gabba.
“When you have a bad loss like this, it’s to be expected that a lot of people are going to speculate over my captaincy. Some say I am not the right person for the job.
“I have got a message for those people — I am not going anywhere,” Gayle wrote in his column in the Courier Mail .
“Make no bones about it — our loss in Brisbane was not only disappointing but it was also downright embarrassing.”
“Times are tough, but I am determined to be the strong captain the team needs right now.”
Gayle was reappointed captain for the Australia series after the settlement of a contractual row between the top players and the West Indies cricket board.
Gayle though said that the team is determined to make a strong comeback in the remainder of the series.
“I have been chosen as captain and it’s a job I will continue to do to the best of my ability. My heart is in it and I feel really strongly that I am the right man to lead the West Indies through this challenging period.”
“A lot has been happening over the past eight months, but I am not into negativity. Negative energy is the last thing we need right now because we are just starting to try to regroup as a team.”
Gayle said he enjoys the support of the team.
“With my captaincy coming under fire, the really heartening thing for me is to see how I have respect from each and every one of the players in our squad.”
“It makes my job easier to know that each individual supports me and it helps me get the best out of the players,” he said.
Gayle called on his teammates to take inspiration from Adrian Barath’s century on debut.
“We all know where we went wrong and after thinking about it for a while and coming up with some answers we have to try to get it out of our system as quickly as possible. We can’t afford to be too hard on ourselves, the Test series is still up for grabs and we have to be strong and positive if we have a chance of beating Australia,” the skipper said.
“An important thing for us will be to use Adrian Barath’s wonderful century as a motivating force. That is a huge positive for the team — a 19-year-old getting a Test century against Australia on his debut. It should drive the rest of our batsmen to produce some big scores.”
