West Indies opener Adrian Barath has said “it’s great” Chris Gayle is returning to the one-day squad — even if the recall has come, in part, at his expense. Former captain Gayle has been selected for the three-match one-day series against England later this month after a 14-month dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). The 32-year-old dynamic opening batsman, with a West Indies record 19 hundreds in 228 ODIs to his name, has not played international cricket since a defeat by Pakistan in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in March last year. A month later, Jamaica left-hander Gayle, one of the world’s most ferocious hitters and a dazzlingly quick run-getter when in form, criticised the WICB and team coach Ottis Gibson after being left out of a squad for a one-day series against Pakistan. However several meetings between the WICB and Gayle, brokered by senior Caribbean politicians, have ended the stand-off. Both Barath and Kieran Powell, who have struggled against England in a Test series where the West Indies are 2-0 down heading into the third and final match starting at Edgbaston here on Thursday, have been left out of the one-day squad.
