The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) selectors have axed Chris Gayle as captain of the West Indies cricket team and have replaced him with allrounder Darren Sammy.
The shake-up includes Brendan Nash as the vice-captain.
However, Gayle has kept his place in the squad for the three-Test tour of Sri Lanka in November, despite turning down a central contract with the WICB last month.
The board also demoted Dwayne Bravo, who was vice-captain under Gayle but like his captain, he did not agree to a new WICB deal.
The two players, along with Kieron Pollard, have forged lucrative Twenty20 careers in domestic tournaments including the Indian Premier League.
This has paved the way for Windward Islands captain Sammy to take over the leadership, despite not being a regular member of the Test side. He and Australian-born Nash will be in charge of the test squad until the end of the 2011 homes series, ending Gayle’s three-year stint as captain.
Gayle led West Indies to three wins in 20 Tests as captain. The West Indies team sits seventh on the ICC Test rankings list and eighth in the ODI rankings.
The squad: Darren Sammy (captain), Chris Gayle, Brendan Nash ( vice-captain), Adrian Barath, Carlton Best (wicketkeeper), Sulieman Benn, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Nelon Pascal, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Shane Shillingford, Devon Smith and Devon Thomas (wk).
Notably absent from the squad are batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan and regular wicket-keeper Denish Ramdin.
