Tym Glaser, Associate Editor - Sport

Gayle

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados:

Laid-back West Indian skipper Chris Gayle downplayed the announcement of Sir Allen Stanford's US$20 million-take-all 20/20 clash between the West Indies and England.

"Am I selected in that?" Gayle said after the final training session at Kensington Oval for the third and final Digicel Test against Australia.

"If I am selected, that would be nice. It's good for the game", he said of the lucrative encounter set for November 1 in Antigua.

"As you all notice, the game is becoming more business, so it's good for the players, but that also means a lot more cricket and you have to keep in shape," he said of the burgeoning abbreviated form of the game.

Looking at 20/20s impact on the longer forms of the game, Test and limited-overs matches, Gayle said cricketers would have to show greater adaptability.

"It's (20/20) going to draw a lot of attention from the young players but you have to learn to adapt to a situation as quickly as possible because you still have Test cricket around. Those younger players have to decide what format they want to play ... 20/20 is very attractive and that's something you have to take into consideration and see how you can build a group separate for each format of the game," he said.

Who can cope

"At the end of the day it will be who can cope with it (the heavier workload). Good players can adapt to it, that's for sure".

As for the huge winner-take-all purse, the hard-hitting Jamaican opener said: "Its US$20 million but somebody has to lose. The game still goes on and you can't kill somebody if they drop a catch. Whoever wins it basically played better cricket, that's it.

"It's just another game of cricket but the money might be there".