Cricket West Indies (CWI) Chief Executive Officer, Johnny Grave, has described the recent public spat between legendary West Indies fast bowler Sir Curtly Ambrose and batsman Chris Gayle as “unfortunate.”
Speaking Tuesday evening on Barbados radio programme, Mason and Guest, the CEO said he has spoken to both parties on the issue.
“We tend to deal with these things privately in-house. We have spoken to Sir Curtly and to Chris and I would describe it as unfortunate. Not necessarily something we want to see as we both massively respect both individuals and is not something we would want to encourage,” Grave expressed.
He underscored that Sir Curtly is working with the West Indies Under-19 players as a Coach, while Gayle is an active player in the Twenty20 International squad.
“We would much prefer everyone focused on the cricket and rallying behind the team and talking positively about us going to defend our World title, but things get said but we have had private discussions with them.”
He further stated they have not taken any disciplinary action against either of the two, but rather just had a discourse with them on the matter.
On October 5, on the said programme, Sir Curtly indicated the veteran opener should not be an automatic choice in the West Indies final 11 for the ongoing World T20 in the United Arab Emirates.
Gayle, the self-proclaimed ‘Universe Boss’, has made only one T20I half-century in the past five years and averages less than 20 over the period.
Sir Curtly said Gayle’s exploits in the format in the last 18 months to two years do not inspire confidence that he can play typically explosive innings as he did in the past.
Gayle hit back at Sir Curtly saying he has “no respect” for the former player and that he is “finished” with him.
“I am speaking about Curtly Ambrose. I am singling out Curtly Ambrose, one of your own. I highly respected him when I came into the West Indies team,” Gayle told The Island Tea Morning Show, a radio station in St Kitts.
Grave said he hopes to see mutual respect for players on and off of the field.
“Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course, but it is an instance that has happened and there is nothing we can do about it. We don’t want to see it happening all the time, we want everyone to respect each other on and off the field.”
Legendary West Indies batsman and former captain, Sir Vivian Richards, said current players must accept criticism for what it is and let their performance on the field vindicate them.
Sir Viv, who scored 8,540 runs in 121 Tests and another 6,721 in One Day International (ODI) matches, urged Gayle to let his performance speak on his behalf.
