Captain cool turns up the heat
Chris Gayle played a key role in West Indies' 2-1 series win over England both with the bat and as captain
Andrew McGlashan
10-Jul-2007
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Gayle isn't a man who likes being told what to do - so news of West
Indies' early nights while on tour didn't go down too well - but on
the evidence of the last two weeks he certainly doesn't mind dishing
out the orders. It was the strongest possible riposte to the board members who
didn't want him in charge of the one-day side, as he turned a
demoralised bunch of cricketers into a cheerful, exuberant force.
During the Test series they hardly said a word, but throughout the
one-day matches there was constant chirp to the England players and it
clearly got under their skin.
Ironically, given the issue Gayle had with the early bedtimes, his
tour came to life when he put on the pyjamas and freed his arms (and
his mind). A 37-ball 61 in the second Twenty20 was more like the old
Gayle, but his vital 82 at Trent Bridge was something entirely
different. From the moment he won the toss and decided to bat he was
in complete control, firstly with the bat and then in the field as he
marshalled his team.
Normally, if Gayle bats 42 overs in a one-day international, he would
be approaching somewhere around 150 given his career strike-rate of
80. But Gayle took the responsibility of building West Indies'
platform especially after their run-machine, Shivnarine Chanderpaul,
had shocked all in attendance by falling for 33 - his lowest score of the tour. Gayle allowed himself
only eight boundaries, none of which were wild heaves, and
counselled Runako Morton when he started his vital innings by trying to launching
everything into the adjacent Radcliffe Road.
Gayle worked out the game plan to a tee and knew that England's
bowling and fielding would struggle in the final ten overs if West
Indies had wickets in hand. When he chipped a return catch to Liam
Plunkett mayhem ensued as Morton and Dwayne Bravo added 92 in less
than eight overs. Only once in his 46 scores of 50-plus has Gayle had a lower strike-rate, but he'd played his role to perfection.
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"We did a lot of planning and all the guys communicate well with each
other," Gayle said after the series win. "We have a lot of team meetings
and we know what responsibility each guy has. All the guys deserve
it."
One of Gayle's successes was for each player to take responsibility -
Morton is a prime example of someone who clearly has talent but needs
direction - and vital performances came from each member of the side.
The team wanted to play for Gayle, as typified by Bravo bowling against
medical advice, and that was no mean feat given the bedraggled state of
affairs after the 3-0 defeat in the Test series.
And all this came from a man who was a stand-in captain - the third
leader West Indies had on their tour. Ramnaresh Sarwan was meant to
have the job but injured himself in the Headingley Test and Daren
Ganga was let go after the Tests, despite the protestations of the
board.
"I am just the back-up captain right now and whenever he [Sarwan]
comes back he will get the same support from the guys," said Gayle. "Because we have
won the series a lot of people might be saying that Chris should
continue as captain but I think Sarwan really deserves his chance."
Whatever the long-term future of Gayle's captaincy, if his short stint
at the helm has created the first shoots of a Caribbean revival then
it's been an outstanding success.
Andrew McGlashan is a staff writer on Cricinfo