Chris Gayle has admitted that he does not want to continue as West Indies captain any more and that he does not particularly care for Test cricket.
"I wouldn't be so sad," Gayle was quoted as saying in the Guardian when asked how he would feel if Test cricket were to die out.
The West Indies all rounder made it clear that he prefers Twenty20 over the traditional five-day game. And that he isn't too keen about the captaincy anymore either.
"To be honest with you, there's a possibility I might give it up I will be giving it up, shortly," he wwas quoted as saying by the paper.
These comments from the incumbent West Indies skipper came after a stormy week where his late arrival for the first Test at Lord's -- as he was busy playing for Kolkata Knight Riders in the second edition of the Indian Premier League in South Africa -- was criticised by his England counterpart Andrew Strauss and his team also went on to lose the opener by 10 wickets and inside three days.
"Yeah it's definitely been a rough week," said Gayle, "From when I landed in England it's been rough, and when we lost the game it's been even tougher. We were depressed."
The 29-year old Jamaican has taken the criticisms taht have followed with a pinch of salt.
"It wouldn't have been a big deal," he said, if he hadn't been captain. "That's how life is. All eyes on you, and all things point to you. Once things don't go well, fingers going to point.
"Yeah, they [the media] make it look like this [Test] was always here, like I want to choose IPL over this. That's why I said everybody knew this was always going to be the situation, so I don't see why people make it a big fuss and a big deal."
Gayle viewed the Twenty20 format will grow in stature and dominate the international calendar in the future.
"The next couple years, I'm sure things are going to be like that. This year it's really jam-packed we've been on the road 24/7 and you don't get no time off, back and forth, back and forth."
The KKR player said he was persuaded into the captain's job on a temporary basis, standing in for the injured Ramnaresh Sarwan.
"That's when it all started. We won the series and then I said to them, whenever Sarwan is fully fit, I am ready to step down. Maybe they saw something different, something totally different," he felt, "and they asked me to be captain.
"I thought hard about it. I didn't want to be captain, I wanted to have more free time. I didn't want that added pressure at that particular time, but they actually insist, insist, insist, so I said OK. So I thought, just get on with it."
Gayle said he had tried hard to adapt to his new role, overcoming challenges that were unnatural to his personality.
"I'm happy because it's done a lot for me as a person. It made me more outspoken, getting to interact with people, to be able to speak to a group. It brought that out of me which I had inside but, you know, didn't want to express it but as a captain you have to."
