The West Indies Players Association (WIPA) wishes to express its concern with regard to the Selectors’ Notes No 4 of the WICB Media Release of 29th May 2011 in which the West Indies Cricket Board’s Selection Committee named the West Indies squads for the upcoming Twenty/20 and First and Second One – Day International matches scheduled to be played at the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad & Tobago.

• That Note 4 read:

“4. Chris Gayle will not be considered for selection to the West Indies team before an intended meeting with himself, the Selection Committee, the WICB Management and the West Indies Team Management. The Selection Committee views this meeting as necessary as a result of Gayle’s comments in a widely publicized radio interview in Jamaica.”

In a WICB statement on May 11th 2011, responding to comments made by one of its Directors, , about , the WICB made it clear that they would not comment beyond the contents of that media statement which stressed that in their view Professor Beckles’ comments were made in his “private capacity” and so in essence outside of the WICB’s jurisdiction.

WIPA wishes to point out that the interview given by Mr Gayle, to which Note 4 of the Selectors’ Notes refers, was in fact given by Mr Gayle in his private capacity since he had neither a retainer contract, match/tour contract with the WICB nor had he been selected to a WICB squad or was participating in any WICB sanctioned match or event at the time the referenced interview was conducted. In this instance, Mr Gayle was acting in a truly private capacity. Additionally, while this information is conveyed via Selectors’ Notes, the proposed meeting is one of very broad composition encompassing not only the WICB Selectors but WICB Management and West Indies Team Management. This begs the question as to the type and scope of the meeting being proposed.

The content of Note 4 of the Selectors’ Notes including the actions already taken by the Selectors with regard to Mr Gayle up to this point and the stated future intentions must therefore be carefully examined and evaluated since there can be no doubt that Mr Christopher Gayle’s immediate past and present performances have been world class and he is clearly not ineligible. This is an exercise WIPA will be undertaking.