Gayle, who has played 58 Tests, scoring 3,804 runs, seven centuries, 22 half centuries at 39.21; and 138 ODIs in which he notched up 4919 runs, 12 centuries at 38.42, according to CaribbeanCricket.com, was among eight players selected.

West Indies captain Brian Lara, who has played 125 Tests and 270 ODIs; Shivnarine Chanderpaul, with 95 Tests and 191 ODIs, and Ramnaresh Sarwan, who has already played 60 Tests and 101 ODIs, are the only other players with more than 50 Tests to have been offered contracts.

RETAINER LIST

The initial retainer list is believed to be:

1. Brian Lara (125 Tests, 270 ODIs); Shivnarine Chanderpaul (95 Tests, 191 ODIs); Ramnaresh Sarwan (60 Tests, 102 ODIs); Chris Gayle (58 Tests, 138 ODIs); Fidel Edwards (24 Tests, 19 ODIs); Corey Collymore (20 Tests, 69 ODIs); Dwayne Bravo (13 Tests, 43 ODIs) and Denesh Ramdin (nine Tests, 14 ODIs).

According to a story published on Caribbean-Cricket.com, 10 players qualified, but the WICB opted to select eight.

"Ten (10) players scored above the required rating to qualify for a retainer contract but, because of the WICB's financial difficulties, only eight will be offered contracts in the first year," the website quoted a source as saying.

"The plan is to add players concurrent with an improvement in the WICB's financial position," said the source.

POSSIBLE CONTRACTS

On Friday, convenor of selectors Joey Carew disclosed 16 to 17 players had been identified for possible contracts.

"The board has given us that responsibility of rating the players, which we are looking at now and then we will give them that information and they will decide how many players will go on retainer contracts and choose them according to our ratings," Carew told CMC Cricket Plus.

"We have come up with 16 or 17 names and maybe from that the board will tell us how many they want to be retained.

"I think it is imminent. They have a meeting this weekend and I think sometime in the very near future we will know how many they want to contract," he said.

Following months of negotiation between the WICB and the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA), both parties finally reached an agreement in April.

At that point, WICB president Ken Gordon announced that the board and WIPA had settled the long-standing issue of retainer contracts for players.

Gordon also said between eight and 12 players were to be contracted. The recommendation from the selectors was to be discussed at a WICB meeting in Port-of-Spain last Saturday and Sunday.