Gayle has injured his groin and the recovery time will mean that he may only be fit after May 15, at the earliest, and that is the date he is expected back in the Caribbean to prepare for the Test series against Australia.

The Kolkata Knight Riders have already signed Brad Hodge as a non-direct replacement for the banned Shoaib Akhtar and they are now “exploring all options” to bring in cover for Gayle.

“We feel that Chris will not be fit until at least May 15 and he has to be in the West Indies by then in any case so it seems now that Chris will not be playing for us in this juncture,” Team Director Joy Bhattacharya told Bigstarcricket.com.

“We knew he had an injury but we wanted him to come over so that our physio Andrew Leipus to take a look at him.”

Gayle sold for $800,000 at auction and he would lose part of that fee because of his non-availability but his injury won’t preclude him from earning his salary in the time that he was in Kolkata for.