Bureaucrats bluster

OK – so the Chris Gayle saga continues.

Not only did the newly-appointed one day captain attack his own board. Not only did the WICB publicly tear a stripe off Gayle. But it appears now that there was some deception involved.

A new party has entered the brawl: The West Indies Players’ Association. They claim that team manager, Mike Findlay, in fact, approved the offending blog. Who, later with the WICB President, reprimanded Gayle for his “unacceptable” behaviour.

Thus, the WIPA argues, Gayle has no reason to apologise as the management already condoned his piece. That Findlay was involved in the disciplinary process makes the entire debacle ever more farcical. It’s like agreeing to buy your four-year old ABSO daughter an ice cream, and then chastising her for not watching her weight.

Dinanath Ramnarine, a spokesman for the WIPA, makes another interesting point. He notes that the WICA President dealt with the matter, not, as convention would dictate, the chief executive officer. The holder of this post, Bruce Aanensen, previously lambasted the Windies players for being useless.

"Is this because Mr Aanensen publicly referred to the players as incompetent and felt he may have lost the respect of Chris and the team, and in fact owed them an apology?”

So now we have a situation of total chaos. The WICB criticises the players, which appears to be acceptable behaviour, as no action has been taken against Aanensen; the players criticise the WICB. No cohesion; no direction. An utter shambles. It would be impossible for any team to pull themselves together in this divisive atmosphere.