'Cool' Gayle can be captain or casualty, says Waugh

When Brian Lara returned home after leading the West Indies to victory in the Champions Trophy last year, he made a player by player assessment of his team. One unexpected declaration was the singling out of Chris Gayle as a potential future leader.

It was an opinion echoed on Wednesday by Steve Waugh, Australia's former Test captain. "The current Windies unit lacks urgency and vibrancy and is therefore reactive, not proactive," Waugh wrote in his column for Melbourne-based The Daily Telegraph. "The good news is that it takes just one player to initiate change by hustling between overs and to liven up proceedings with a bit of chat out on the field, especially if it is a senior player."

Waugh believed that "the highly talented Chris Gayle has the presence and ability to influence those around him". But Waugh qualified his comment with the need for a change in Gayle's attitude. "He is a serial offender in the casual cool club," he wrote. "By handing in his membership, he will ensure a mass exodus that will go a long way to fulfilling his natural talent and that of others in the side."

Earlier today at Hobart, Gayle hit a gutsy half-century in the first innings of the second Test against Australia, after going off the field for some time while batting due to a pre-existing heart condition.

Peter Roebuck, the former captain of Somerset, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, described Gayle as "the enigma of West Indies cricket". "At present, he lingers midway between liability and leader," he stated. "Sooner or later he must decide what sort of role he intends to play. He seems to reflect the shallowness of a culture that has brought West Indies cricket to its knees. More is needed from the side's senior opening batsman, a member of the World XI no less, than floated off breaks, blocks and lifted drives. No one in this touring party is better placed than the endlessly languid Jamaican to provide the inspiration that alone can turn its fortunes around."

Gayle is still only 26 but has been in the West Indies team for six years. He has scored 3,509 runs in his 53 Tests at a fraction under 39 an innings, claimed 40 wickets and held 61 catches. But he has been generally regarded as "the coolest dude in town", to quote Roebuck. "Along the way he has been suspended for missing matches, taken part in industrial action, changed his hairstyle, worn almost as many dark glasses as Roy Orbison and passed 300 in a Test," Roebuck wrote. "It is a confusing and unsatisfying mix."

Gayle's batting method has also come under scrutiny in recent days. It was typified by three successive balls from Glenn McGrath in the second innings of the first Test. The first was hoisted over long-off for six, the second presented a return catch that McGrath dropped, and the third sailed over long-off for another six. He was finally out to Shane Watson to a first slip catch for 33.

Wavell Hinds, Gayle's fellow Jamaican who has been his opening partner more times than anyone else, saw no reason why he should change his approach. "Chris is our No.1 opener and has played very aggressively throughout his career," he said. "In the last Test he played two shots not the best cricket shots for an opening batsman but I would back Chris to come out and do the job. He plays his style of cricket, taking on the bowling and trying to get the advantage as early as possible."

McGrath had a different view. "The way [Ramnaresh] Sarwan batted in the first innings [of the first Test] and the way Gayle bats, they just went out there and started playing their shots. It came off for a while but there's got to be some consistency there. They need to tough it out in the middle a bit more."

And what about those two Gayle sixes? "I got the length slightly wrong, a little bit too full and wide," McGrath stated. "He's the type of guy who can do that but he can get out just as easily. He is a dangerous batsman but I probably learned more than he did by hitting those sixes."