Not retiring from any format: Gayle

Wellington, March 21 (IANS) West Indies batsman Chris Gayle on Saturday made it clear that he is not retiring from any form of the game, but a recurring back injury will keep him out of upcoming Test series against England.

"I'm actually out of the Test series, the back won't hold up for that format at this point in time. But I haven't retired from any format as yet," Gayle was quoted as saying by espncricinfo.

"As I go on I will keep informing the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) about my progress in the future with West Indies cricket."

The West Indies were knocked out of the World Cup on Saturday after losing their quarter-final against New Zealand by 143 runs.

The 35-year-old said that he would love to play in 2016 World T20 to be held in India and there is no doubt about that.

"Definitely I want to play the T20 World Cup next year for West Indies, there's no doubt about that," the left-handed batsman said.

"I've got a few concerns and a few injury to try and solve. I'll give myself some time and hopefully look back at it and see how well I can actually progress for West Indies cricket at this point in time.”

Gayle said the two-time World Champions played well in the World Cup and were a 'good all-round team', even though they missed Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard - whose omissions he had spoken out against before the tournament.

"I thought we played some great cricket," Gayle said. 

"Yes we missed Bravo and Pollard, but I thought we did well. We had a good all-round team, and the guys played some crucial innings for us.”

WICB appointed 23-year-old all-rounder Jason Holder as the West Indies' ODI captain before the World Cup.

Asked how he rated Holder's captaincy, Gayle said he had room to improve but wished him well, and hoped he would hold the team together in the future.

“There's always room for improvement. There's no doubt about it. It's never going to be easy, coming here and captaining in a World Cup for the first time.

"It's always going to be a mind factor and lot of pressure is going to be there on a youngster like that,” the hard-hitting batsman said.

Gayle further added that, “In the future, I wish him well; hopefully he can use this as a learning experience, and can get better. Just keep your players together and just hold them and stick with them."

In the West Indies' group match against Zimbabwe, Gayle smashed 215, the first double-century in the history of the World Cup. 

On Saturday's quarter-final, New Zealand's Martin Guptill bettered his effort and smashed an unbeaten 237. Gayle was one of the first West Indies players to congratulate Guptill when he went past 200.

"Guptill was fantastic. He batted well, we know his capability. It was a good wicket out there. He set up his innings fantastically. 

"Congrats to him on getting the double century. I wish him all the best furthermore in his career, and he's a wonderful player as well," Gayle said.