West Indies captain Chris Gayle has gone on the back foot regarding his reported comments that Test cricket was not important, after his legendary compatriot Viv Richards accused him of "total betrayal of the game that raised him
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With the ICC considering radical steps to improve Test cricket by staging day-night matches while streamlining the umpire referral system and with Cricket Australia working with scientists to develop a coloured ball for night Tests, Gayle's prophecy that the five-day game could die, has elicited a scathing attack from Richards.
"Individuals should be a little careful with some of the things they say," Richards said.
"I believe Chris still loves Test match cricket, and maybe he wouldn't have made these comments if he had been thinking clearly. I honestly feel that this is not what he genuinely believes, and if it is, it is a total betrayal of the game that raised him."
Richards added: "He must remember that he made the West Indies team not because he was a good Twenty20 player, but because of his ability as a Test cricketer. He seems to have forgotten that the one-day games came out of Test cricket, and it was Test cricket that brought him to the world's attention."
Richards' reaction has prompted Gayle to beat a hasty retreat, saying that he was "misquoted" and "misinterpreted" in an interview with a London newspaper.
The West Indies skipper, who has a US$800,000 contract with Kolkata Knight Riders, reportedly told The Guardian that he "would not be so sad" if Tests ceased to exist in an era of Twenty20 cricket. But he said his comments were made in reference solely to his own career.
Hitting back at England captain Andrew Strauss, who criticised him for arriving from the Indian Premier League only two days before the West Indies- England Test series, Gayle said: "I wouldn't be so sad". Strauss does not play T20 for England.
"Some other players would be sad," Gayle said. "Maybe Andrew Strauss will be sad if Test cricket dies and Twenty20 comes in. Because there is no way he can make the change".
Meanwhile, at a press conference ahead of the West Indies' second Test in England, Strauss re-iterated his preference for Test cricket, saying it is still the "ultimate".
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