Gayle not discarded as captain, say Jamaica

The Jamaica Cricket Association has backed its decision to nominate Tamar Lambert as captain for the forthcoming Caribbean T20 instead of Chris Gayle, who leads West Indies. They have also denied suggestions that Gayle was discarded as captain and said that Lambert was a logical choice as he has played regularly for Jamaica over the last few seasons, as opposed to Gayle, who has been busy with international commitments.

"Chris has not played a lot of games for Jamaica over the last couple of years and with Tamar being around the players for an extended period, it stands to reason they (selectors) may have wanted to keep Tamar for continuity. Tamar is more familiar with the guys," Jamaica's cricket operations manager, Courtney Francis, told CMC Sports. "[It's best to] have Chris just come in and do what he does best, hit away the ball and win matches for us."

Lambert had the credentials to back his case, having led Jamaica to a hat-trick of titles in the four-day competitions in the last few seasons."I cannot speak with any great authority on why the selectors found favour with Tamar," Francis said. "I don't know if it has to do with his record or with continuity as it speaks to the Jamaica line-up. Though Chris is here, [it may be a situation of] giving Chris a little rest from the stress of just captaining in a West Indies series.

"Maybe this would just allow Chris to concentrate on his batting only and give us some mammoth performances which we know he's capable of."

Gayle is coming off a difficult home series against South Africa, in which West Indies lost all but one match, the drawn second Test at St Kitts.