Gayle fumes over team

Chris Gayle has accused the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) of victimisation after key all-rounders Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard were left out of the country's World Cup squad.

The powerful left-handed opener was left flabbergasted by the axing of the pair, which he feels has little to do with their performance on the pitch.

Bravo and Pollard were seen as leading the player revolt in India that forced the abandonment of the West Indies tour last October after a pay dispute with the WICB.

"There's no way you can tell me those guys shouldn't be in the team," Gayle told reporters. "For me it's got to be victimisation towards those two guys. Come on guys, it's just ridiculous. Honestly, it choked me up."

The players had been told they would be left out of the World Cup team as the country was building a team for the future, though as Gayle points out, the timing is odd going into a major tournament.

Gayle added the team would be weakened by the loss of the pair both in the batting and bowling departments.

The duo helped West Indies win the Twenty20 series in South Africa where they lead 2-0 going into Wednesday's final match in Durban. They were also overlooked for the five-match ODI series against South Africa starting Friday.

Meanwhile, WICB president Dave Cameron has rejected claims that Bravo and Pollard were axed from the World Cup squad because of their roles in the controversial abandoned tour of India.

When the squad for South Africa was announced last month, St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves wrote to Cameron to complain that the WICB had "dishonoured that undertaking" of not punishing any player involved in the India tour walk-out.

However, Cameron remained adamant the one-day international squads for both the South Africa tour and the World Cup were selected on merit.

"We have not gone back on our agreement. At the point in time we made it very clear we didn't want to use the terminology that was being suggested," Cameron said Sunday.