Gayle: Pietersen must play Twenty20 for England

London It took two prime ministers and months of talks to smooth Chris Gayle’s return to the West Indies team and he believes a compromise should also be found to enable Kevin Pietersen to play Twenty20 cricket for England again.

Gayle and Pietersen are friends and soul-mates. Both attract top Indian Premier League contracts and bring a star quality the game badly needs.

But while Pietersen prepares for life as a Test specialist and IPL money machine, Gayle is back playing for the West Indies.

He played his first match for them for 14 months on Wednesday, a period that has seen him appear for Twenty20 franchises in India, Bangladesh and Australia. His exile was sparked by critical comments about Ottis Gibson, the West Indies coach, but those were the culmination of years of disputes.

“It will be a big blow for England if they don’t pick him, he is the best batsman in the team and I think the coach will miss him, the captain will miss him and the players will definitely miss him. And the fans as well are going to miss him,” said Gayle, speaking for the first time since flying to England last week.

“The Kevin Pietersen situation is really unfortunate. I guess he didn’t want to play 50-over and the England rules are that once you don’t play 50-over, you can’t play T20. If someone wants to retire from one, I don’t see the reason why that has to happen. He’s a star player as well, he must know the workload he can take on his body.”

Gayle is only here after a meeting between the West Indies board, selectors and Gayle brokered by Ralph Gonsalves, the Prime Minister of St Vincent, and Baldwin Spencer, the Prime Minister of Antigua.

Gayle struck two sixes at Lord’s on Wednesday before holing out to midwicket for 34. It lay the ground for a West Indies total of 335 for four. He then took the final two wickets as Middlesex slumped to 107 all out.

“I’m human, so I felt a bit nervous,” he said. “But now I’m really looking forward to the first ODI game. I’ll be in a better sate of mind. Everything has been rectified [with Gibson and the board], we are all here as one and our main objective is to try to contribute to West Indies cricket.”

Including Test cricket? “I’m available for all forms of the game and hopefully can get some runs in whites and coloured clothes.”

West Indies showed their formidable power with the bat on Wednesday against an admittedly weak Middlesex attack.

Darren Bravo made a run-a-ball 112, combining with his half-brother Dwayne (40 not out) to add 73 in the last six overs. Middlesex succumbed with 19 overs to spare.