Strauss raps Gayle

England captain Andrews Strauss has charged West Indies captain Chris Gayle of “devaluing” Test cricket by arriving from the Indian Premier League (IPL) just two days before the start of the Test series.

“The important thing is that Test cricket gets the attention it deserves,” Strauss was quoted as saying in The Guardian on Wednesday.

“That means that people prepare themselves properly. You don’t want Test cricket to be devalued in any shape or form. Certainly we wouldn’t want our players arriving two days before,” Strauss said.

“None of us want a situation where international cricket is competing against IPL cricket.

That is unhealthy for the game, it is unhealthy for the IPL and most important of all it is unhealthy for the future of Test cricket,” he said.

“I was due to come here a day earlier, on Sunday, but we had a game and I got permission to stay. But we all knew the situation,” Gayle said.