Whirlwind Gayle optimistic Windies will tour SA

things are at the moment, but these things tend to happen in industries,” Gayle said.

“Before I left the Caribbean, there was a meeting held between (captain) Dwayne Bravo and the board. I don’t know what the outcome was, and we’d love to see the cricket go on because that’s what we’re here for.

“It will make the people feel happy to see some good cricket.”

The West Indies are scheduled to play three Tests, three T20 Inter nationals and five ODIs in South Africa, kicking off with the first Test at Centurion on December 17.

While he was reluctant to say West Indies cricket was in turmoil, Gayle did admit the current environment was far from ideal. “I wouldn’t say this is a low point for our cricket. We’ve had other issues in the past and things were resolved.

“But it has been better, there’s no doubt about it.”

Gayle was hopeful the issues between players and the board would be sorted out soon. “We’re just trying to get things resolved as quickly as possible and there are no hard feelings.”

The T20 specialist met his Highveld Lions teammates ahead of their opening Ram Slam T20 Challenge match against the Dolphins at the Wanderers tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Brian Lara extended a belated apology to the SA public for the 1998/99 tour debacle and his West Indies team’s weak performances in the ensuing Test series.

Lara was guest of honour at a banquet in Joburg this week to launch the Sports Heroes Walk against Aids, an annual event where sports personali- ties join a walk through the provinces raising awareness and providing communities with the necessary tools to fight the Aids epidemic.

“Before I say anything else, I want to apologise to South Africa,” the cricket legend said.

“Sixteen years ago I was the captain of the West Indies team which almost didn’t tour. By the time we got here, we were already mentally destroyed. We robbed the South African players and public of a competitive Test series, which we lost 5-0.”

The team were holed up in a London hotel refusing to travel to South Africa over a pay dispute. Ali Bacher, managing director of the United Cricket Board at the time, flew to London to negotiate with the team but had in his armoury a secret weapon – a letter from then President Nelson Mandela, im- ploring the players to go ahead with the tour, stressing the importance of their visit to the new democracy.

“In our minds, the tour was definitely off until we were handed the letter from Madiba. How could we refuse him?

“So I’d like to share a little of the blame with him. If he’d only written that letter one week earlier, the whole fiasco could have been avoided.”

The WICB now find themselves in a similar situation after the players pulled out of their recent tour of India. – Sapa