Curtly Ambrose is entitled to his honest opinion, Chris Gayle should use it as a motivator, states Viv Richards

Curtly Ambrose had criticised Chris Gayle over his form during the course of the year, while stating that he wouldn’t pick the 42-year-old in his West Indies first XI at the T20 World Cup 2021.

“It’s Curley's honest opinion and he’s entitled to that and he is just as much as an achiever as Chris Gayle at the highest level,” Richards told Daily Observer.

Gayle, the leading run-scorer in T20 cricket with 14,276 runs and 22 hundreds, hasn’t quite had the best of years in T20Is, with 227 runs from 16 innings at 17.46. Richards opined that the swashbuckling left-hander is still a very good player, and that he should use the criticism to extract the best out of himself.

“If I was Chris, the best positive way I would look at it would be to set my mind on what I would like to accomplish because it is just not Curtly because there are so many folks who would have had their criticisms about Gayle. Chris is still a pretty good player in my opinion and at this point, that particular criticism must be used as a motivator,” said Richards.