Gayle - File

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

Jamaica and West Indies captain Chris Gayle used the occasion of his side's 17-run defeat to Barbados in the Carib Beer Cup to blast the standard of umpiring in regional matches.

Dalton Holder of Barbados and Terence Birbal of Trinidad and Tobago were the two umpires that stood in the top-of-the-table, fifth-round match contested at Kensington Oval, and Gayle felt their performance was less than satisfactory.

"If you look at some of the decisions that went against us, it was really terrible for sports and the game what happened and it was just blatant," Gayle told reporters, after Barbados completed victory about half-hour before the lunch interval on the fourth and final day.

"We just have to move on because what can we do about it now. It is up to the heads really to look at this because it can affect a player's career.

"It is not good for the game. It is also not good for people leaving this level and going to international cricket, and then it is something totally different, so we are not really happy about the outcome of this game."

Gayle felt the problem had reached crisis level and felt the Jamaican team had suffered quite a bit over the last few years.

"It cannot continue happening like this year in, year out," he said. "Jamaica always seem to have it tough and decisions always seem to go against us. Basically, once we are playing away from home, it always seems to be tough for us, and it was the same thing last week when we played Trinidad & Tobago. We came out on top then, but this time, it was not in our favour."

He added: "It is cricket and these things happen and we will need to look into ourselves and try to be strong. We have got to look forward and play some good cricket at home to beat the Windwards and take the title."

Full of praise

Barbados captain Dwayne Smith was fulsome in praise for the way his side fought back in the second half of the match to clinch the win.

"The guys batted well in the second innings and gave us something to work with," he said. "The bowlers backed us up with the ball and we got the wickets we wanted. All we needed was to get some early wickets [on Monday] and so we did. We knew that we could have taken it from there to go on and win the game."