West Indian Chris Gayle insisted on Tuesday he has not turned his back on Test cricket and wants to pull on the whites again for his troubled 

The flamboyant Gayle has been portrayed in the media as preferring to take the money and play for Twenty20 franchises than help rescue Caribbean cricket from its current malaise.

But the ex-Windies captain ins-isted it was injury that sidelined him from the current series against Australia, who won the first Test in Hobart by an innings inside three days on Saturday.

Gayle, who has played 103 Tests, had back surgery earlier this year.

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Despite this, the 36-year-old exp-ects to be fit enough to play every Big Bash League game for the Melbourne Renegades this season and was adamant he wanted to play Tests again.

“There’s no way I could have act-ually been part of that Test team (in Hobart), I’m just coming back off injury,” he said. “I haven’t retired from the game. Next year hopefully Test cricket is on the agenda.”

Gayle’s comments came as criticism mounted about the tourists’ inept performance in Hobart with pace great Michael Holding telling Fairfax Media the West Indies Cricket Board was “dysfunctional, untrustworthy and not liked by the employees”.

Gayle, who played his last Test against Bangladesh in September 2014, was reluctant to criticise the board and defended his younger Test team-mates.

“It kind of reminded me how we used to be dominant against Australia and it’s vice versa now,”

“It’s a young team, so we have to definitely give it time rather than be so harsh on West Indies cricket all the time,” he said.