Melbourne: Under-attack West Indies captain Chris Gayle has made it clear that critics can say whatever they want but he is no mood to quit the captaincy of his nation after they suffered a humiliating defeat against Australia in the first test at Brisbane.

Gayle said he accepts that the loss in the first test of the three match series was “downright embarrassing” but he still has the support of his players and there is no question whatsoever of quitting captaincy at this stage.

“Times are tough but I’m determined to be the strong captain the team needs right now,” Gayle wrote in his column for “Courier Mail”. “When you have a bad loss like this, it’s to be expected that a lot of people are going to speculate over my captaincy. Some say I’m not the right person for the job.”

“I’ve got a message for those people – I’m not going anywhere. I have been chosen as captain and it’s a job I will continue to do to the best of my ability. My heart is in it and I feel really strongly that I am the right man to lead the West Indies through this challenging period,” added the flamboyant left-hander.

Claiming that he still enjoys the respect of his teammates, Gayle said, “With my captaincy coming under fire, the really heartening thing for me is to see how I have respect from each and every one of the players in our squad. It makes my job easier to know that each individual supports me and it helps me get the best out of the players.”

“It is tremendous and it gives me the extra drive to be the person who leads from the front and copes with all the things that happen when the side doesn’t play well,” Gayle added.

Gayle had no reservations in accepting that his team’s innings and 44 runs defeat in Brisbane was very disappointing and it merits strong introspection from each player.

“Make no bones about it – our loss in Brisbane was not only disappointing but it was also downright embarrassing. We have to look forward to the Adelaide Test this week but we also have to look ourselves in the mirror and be honest with ourselves. To lose 15 wickets in a day on a beautiful batting track is simply not good enough and there are no excuses for that,” he said.

“We all know where we went wrong and after thinking about it for a while and coming up with some answers we have to try to get it out of our system as quickly as possible. We can’t afford to be too hard on ourselves, the Test series is still up for grabs and we have to be strong and positive if we are a chance of beating Australia,” he added.

Gayle said that West Indies batsmen should take inspiration from the debut Test century of the 19-year-old opener Adrian Barath to turn things around. “If a teenager in his first Test can do that sort of thing, it should drive the rest of our batsmen to produce some big scores,” Gayle said.

He concluded by criticising the controversial new video review system after twice unsuccessfully challenging his lbw decisions at the Gabba. “I’m just not a fan of it, the new technology they have put in place still makes mistakes,” Gayle said.

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