Gayle an embarrassment to West Indies cricket: Hughes

Chris Gayle has become an "embarrassment" for West Indies cricket after saying that he wouldn't cry if Test cricket died, feels former Australian captain Kim Hughes.

Gayle sparked an outrage when he said that he wanted to give up national captaincy and focus on playing Twenty20 cricket.

Hughes lambasted Gayle for his comments and said that he was an "embarrassment" to the game in the Caribbean.

The Aussie's criticism of Gayle was backed by West Indian legend Viv Richards, who felt the batsman's comments were "a total betrayal of the game that raised him".

Former Australian Test captains Ian Chappell and Mark Taylor went a step further and called for Gayle's sacking.

"There's been some surveys in recent times where 90 per cent or more of players still see Test cricket as the ultimate. If those people are being honest, that suggests even the younger players still want to play Test match cricket.

"But obviously comments like you've heard this week don't help," Taylor said. Australian pacer Stuart Clark said Gayle was being "selfish" and the game was "bigger than one man".

Meanwhile, Hughes felt Australian pacer Shaun Tait, who endorsed Gayle by saying that the West Indian was "spot on" in his assessment of the future of Test cricket, represented a growing breed of "cosmetic cricketers" unwilling to go through the grind.

"That's Shaun Tait, and that's why he's not playing for Australia, because if you're brutally frank about it, Shaun Tait's pretty soft," Hughes was quoted as saying by 'The Sunday Telegraph'.

"Physically and mentally he doesn't want to do the hard yards. Your good performers want to excel in all levels of cricket, but for weaker people - mentally and physically - they take the easy road. They're the blokes we don't want and they'll be found out."

Tait was stripped of his Cricket Australia contract recently and has been fuming ever since as CA had also disallowed him from participating in the cash-rich Indian Premier League citing fitness issues.

The pacer has said that he felt by betrayed by CA.