Mixed Emotions After Gayle Withdrawl - Radford

11 Jun 2015 | Cricket
Glamorgan Head Coach Toby Radford maintained a balanced outlook after hearing that Chris Gayle will withdraw from the Somerset squad ahead of Saturday's NatWest T20 Blast fixture at The SSE SWALEC (play starts 2.30pm).
Radford worked with Gayle during his time as Assistant Coach of the West Indies and knows all too well of his standing as a destructive boundary hitter and a box office draw.

In some senses it's a big disappointment that Somerset will be without Chris Gayle because he is the world's best at what he does and our bowlers were keen to make plans for him, said Radford.

From a different perspective, he can have a big influence on games and he certainly made Somerset a tougher team to beat.

I'm neither disappointed or ecstatic that he won't be involved and we'll just focus on doing what we need to do to win the game.

Gayle cited his desire to ramp up his preparations for the Caribbean Premier League after making a request to depart one game ahead of schedule.

International cricketers spend a long time on the road and Chris Gayle flew to our tournament after seven weeks in the Indian Premier League, said Radford.

He's probably been away from home for ten weeks and he's keen to prepare for the Caribbean Premier League.

It's very tough to recruit a player of that quality for a long period of time but Somerset are obviously keen to be accommodating to his requests to maintain a good relationship.

Glamorgan have no injury concerns ahead of Friday's game against Gloucestershire in Bristol.

Glamorgan NatWest T20 Blast fixtures at the SSE SWALEC
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