Chris Gayle ... set to lead the West Indies against Zimbabwe and South Africa. - AP

JAMAICA'S CHRIS GAYLE will be the man in charge when West Indies cricket team travels to Zimbabwe and South Africa later this month, according to the website caribbeancricket.com.

Despite that fact that injured Test skipper Ramnaresh Sarwan could return for the South African tour, Gayle has apparently been named for the entire tour.

In what will be a new leadership team, Clive Lloyd has been appointed manager, and Australian John Dyson, who is expected to join the team for the South Africa leg, is the new coach, the site said.

Gayle's expected appointment as captain for the African tour comes as a surprise, especially since he was only named interim captain for the one-day series in England and Trinidad and Tobago's Daren Ganga acted as Test captain.

Overruled selectors

Even then, it was reported that, then president Ken Gordon overruled the selectors nomination of Gayle as one-day captain for Ganga, but that was later overturned after further discussions.

Gayle led Jamaica to the KFC Cup title, which may have strengthened his appointment for the tour, which includes three Tests in South Africa.

The tour of Zimbabwe will run from November 27 to December 10 for five one-day matches. That will be imme-diately followed by a tour of South Africa from December 10 to February 3, including three Tests, five ODIs and two Twenty20 internationals.

Conflict-of-interest question

According to the website's report, the West Indies Cricket Board's (WICB) directors also chose Lloyd to replace Mike Findlay yesterday.

Lloyd, a WICB director and chairman of the cricket committee, served as temporary team coordinator but was demoted after conflict-of-interest questions surfaced about his role and responsibilities.

Findlay, who was the most recent team manager, was caught up in the controversy over Gayle's comments that criticised the WICB for its handling of administrative matters while on the England tour earlier in the year.