Chris Gayle is to make a return to the national senior cricket team after missing this month’s third annual Caribbean Twenty20 Tournament.
Also returning is Brendan Nash, who missed the Regional Super50 and the Caribbean Twenty20 after asking the selectors for a break.
Big-hitting left-hander Gayle, who missed the CT20 due to participation in the Australian Big Bash Twenty20 League, was yesterday named in the country’s 13-man squad for their opening West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Regional Four-Day Tournament clash against the Windward Islands.
The match is slated to start on Friday at Sabina Park.
“It’s good to know that we will have someone of the calibre of Chris Gayle for at least the opening game,” said chairman of selectors, Courtnay Daley.
“This gives us a good opportunity to make a winning start, as we seek to defend our title and go for our fifth in a row.”
He added: “We just hope that when he (Gayle) and the others go off for Bangladesh they will return and make themselves available for the final leg of the tournament.”
The 32-year-old Gayle is one of two players in the squad who will leave to play in the inaugural Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) after the Windwards match. The other is Andre Russell.
They will be joined by Marlon Samuels and Jerome Taylor, who did not make themselves available for selection in the Windwards match.
Following the BPL, Gayle is scheduled to head off to South Africa to participate in that country’s Twenty20 league. Gayle was bought for US$551,000 (J$47,248,338), Samuels for US$360,000 (J$30,870,011), Russell for US$50,000 (J$4,287,500) and Taylor for US$50,000 (J$4,287,500).
The Bangladesh Twenty20 League will run from February 12-20.
The WICB Regional Four-Day Tournament will be held between February 3 and April 10.
SQUAD: Tamar Lambert (captain), Nikita Miller, Christopher Gayle, Simon Jackson, Brenton Parchment, Donovan Pagon, Brendan Nash, David Bernard Jr., Carlton Baugh Jr., Odean Brown, André Russell, André Richardson, Jamie Merchant.
