If ever there was a competition for Laid-Back Sportsman of the Year, there would surely only be one winner - West Indian batsman Chris Gayle. The 27-year-old Jamaican is one of the great talents of the modern game. When he’s in the mood, he can tear apart any attack in the world with hitting so ferocious that you feel sorry for the boundary fence.

I was privileged to see Gayle hammer Matthew Hoggard for six fours in an over at Lord’s in 2004, and with seven Test centuries and 26 fifties, and an average of over 38, Gayle is a serious batsman.

His one-day record is also very good with 15 hundreds and 30 fifties, and he is a better-than-average spin bowler, especially at the death overs in ODIs. And with a smile that seems to extend round the boundary of any ground in the world, and an engaging personality, you would think Gayle has got everything going for him.

'Gayle will be leading raw talent and his non-confrontational approach may be just what this rather disjointed squad needs'


But it’s not been plain sailing for Chris. Despite his immense talent, he has often been accused of being too laid-back, uninterested and, worst of all, of not getting his head down when his team needs it. His dismissal in the first innings of the current Test at Chester-Le-Street is a case in point. Gayle was his usual swashbuckling self, thrashing the ball all over Durham before trying the same again and getting trapped at the crease by Hoggard.

And when you see Gayle in his customary position at first slip, with sun glasses and hands deep in his pocket, you wonder if he is an international sports star or if he is enjoying a casual walk along the river. For Windies fans and cricket lovers across the world, he can be a real disappointment.

So the news of Gayle getting the captaincy for the forthcoming one-day series involving England and India is extremely interesting. The absence of Ramnaresh Sarwan through injury has given him the opportunity to prove himself – and there will be no place to hide for the Mr Cool of cricket.

I think the captaincy of this likeable and affable player will be his making. This young Windies side has disappointed in the Test series but they are no one-day pushovers, as their performances in the last two Champions Trophies have confirmed. Gayle will be leading raw talent like Runako Morton, Fidel Edwards and Dwayne Bravo and his non-confrontational approach may be just what this rather disjointed squad needs.

There have been rumblings of discontent during the current Test series and Gayle was not happy himself about the 11pm curfew imposed by the tour management. So it will be interesting to see how he fares as poacher-turned-gamekeeper.

The Windies are a long way off recreating the glory years of the 1980s. But in Gayle they have an unpolished diamond (no, not the stud in his ear), and with a Geoff Boycott approach to his game (head down, no pasaran), his Test average will get better. And if he does the business in the one-dayers, deals with the sloppy fielding and bowling while leading by example, he could become one of the greats of the modern game.