‘Jamaica cricket needs help’ – WI star Gayle worried about state of sport in home country 

(SPORTS MAX) West Indies and Jamaica batsman, Chris Gayle, has expressed concern regarding the state of cricket in his home country.

In its most recent campaign, the team crashed out of the Regional Super50 competition after being comprehensively beaten in the semi-finals by eventual champions Trinidad and Tobago.  The result ended yet another poor run of form in the competition, which the team has not won since the 2011-2012 season.  In fact, since that time Jamaica has only managed just one final appearance.

Jamaica’s poor form isn’t limited to just the Super50 competition.  In the regional four-day competition, despite having 12 titles, the team also not won since the 2011-2012 season.  Jamaica’s franchise has fared better in the shortest format, the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 but even then has not won that competition since 2016 when Gayle himself played a crucial role in lifting the trophy.  For his part, the batsman does not believe the country has been making full use of its talent pool.

“Jamaica cricket needs help.  We need help and there is a lot of talent there and we don’t really want to lose them.  We have lost a lot of talent in Jamaica already,” Gayle said. “We need to try and keep the players happy and then we can try and rebuild Jamaica cricket as well,” he added. “I will offer whatever (help) I can offer in terms of Jamaica cricket, but a lot of structure needs to be put in place.”