Ottis Gibson wants Chris Gayle working with West Indies batters. The former West Indies head coach, now Cricket West Indies’ fast-bowling consultant, made the call on Dwayne Bravo’s The Champions Corner, released on 18 October 2026, with Kieron Pollard also on the panel.
Gibson admitted Gayle may not want a coaching job. He still sees no better teacher for this batting group.
“Even somebody like Chris Gayle, I mean, he probably got no interest whatsoever in coaching, but he’s a GOAT. He’s one of the GOATs.”
Ottis Gibson, The Champions Corner, 18 October 2026
Gibson speaks from inside the system. CWI named him Fast Bowling Consultant on 2 April 2026, and he has since run fast-bowling camps in Antigua with the 2027 World Cup in mind.
What Gibson described was not slogging. The first over Gayle let go is the part young batters copy least, and it came from Test cricket.
Gibson’s ask was specific. He wants West Indies batters to hear how Gayle changed his game between formats.
“What made him go from a well-organised Test batsman making runs in Test cricket to the most explosive T20 batsman ever? What was his mindset shift? Only he can share that story.”
Ottis Gibson, The Champions Corner, 18 October 2026
He put Gayle’s T20 plan simply. Bowlers could get through the first over because Gayle was taking a look, but by the fourth and fifth overs, whoever was bowling was under pressure.
Insider Read
West Indies cricketer Chris Gayle Watching the first over is not doing nothing. An opener is reading the swing, the pace off the pitch and the length the bowler wants, the same filter Gibson described in Gayle’s Test approach of leaving the ball for the first hour. In T20, Gayle shrank that hour to six balls.
This month Gayle praised young batters for playing fearlessly from the first ball, but his own method was more patient. A batter who swings at the first over without reading it is guessing, while Gayle’s freedom was built on information. That is the part only he can teach.
From ‘User’ to GOAT: Can Gibson Get Gayle?
The praise carries history. In April 2011, after Gibson criticised the senior batters following the World Cup quarter-final exit, Gayle called him a “user” in a radio interview. Gayle then spent 15 months out of the West Indies side.
When he returned in August 2012, Gibson said he had told him to be himself and enjoy his cricket. Two months later, West Indies won the T20 World Cup with Gibson as coach and Gayle playing a key role.
Whether Gayle would take a West Indies role is less certain. He is co-owner and mentor of Kochi Blue Tigers in the Kerala Cricket League and told Onmanorama in August that he enjoys mentoring. He also said coaching needs full-time commitment and the right opportunity, team and environment.
Gibson closed the episode hoping the board would use the experience it already has. Gayle has already said what it would take.
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