Chris Gayle is not playing for Jamaica in the ongoing Caribbean T20 because the selectors decided to omit him from the squad, after the batsman said he would be available only if his Big Bash League franchise, Sydney Thunder, did not make the knockouts of Australia’s ongoing domestic T20 competition. Thunder failed to make it past the league stage of the BBL but, according to the Caribbean T20 playing conditions, Gayle cannot be added to Jamaica’s squad unless one of their players is injured. The WICB had set a December 16 deadline for all the regional teams to send in their squads for the final edition of the Caribbean T20, which will be replaced by the franchise-based Caribbean Premier League next year. Eager to have Gayle in their squad, Jamaica’s three-man selection panel, led by Courtnay Daley, contacted him in December, when West Indies were touring Bangladesh. Gayle was open to the offer, but made it clear that he would be available for Jamaica only after his stint with Thunder. Though Gayle found form in the final match for Thunder with the fastest fifty of the BBL, it came too late in the day.* “When we got in touch with Chris, he said he could only come if his team [Thunder] did not go through,” Daley, the chairman of selectors, told ESPNcricinfo. “So based on our situation we decided to go ahead and name the squad [without Gayle].” Thunder had a dismal run in the BBL, losing all seven games and finishing bottom of the league. Gayle, one of the most destructive batsmen in T20 cricket, made only 72 runs in six innings. According to Daley, the Caribbean T20 rules do not permit squad changes and the only way Gayle can be accommodated is as a replacement in case of an injury to an existing player.
