Capetown, Jan 12 (IANS): The West Indies opener Chris Gayle has blasted the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the Clive Lloyd-led selection panel for dropping senior all-rounders Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard from the World Cup squad.

Gayle termed the move as “ridiculous” and felt it was a case of “victimisation” against the two players.

"How can those two guys not be in the team? To me, it got to be like victimisation when you look at it towards those two guys. Come on, guys. It is just ridiculous," Gayle was quoted as saying by espncricinfo.com.

"Really hurt. Ridiculous. Honestly, it throw me off. We can only talk. We can express our feelings, which I'm doing at this point in time. The squad already is announced. It is just sad.”

The 35-year-old also stated that without the duo, the team has become frail.

"We don't have our strongest team without Pollard, nor Bravo. So that is actually sad for us. It is a really big blow for us to actually lose two key players, two key allrounders as well, very good in the outfield," he said.

"I don't know what's the history behind it, but it is a ridiculous selection from my point of view," Gayle added.

The WICB Sunday announced the 15-member World Cup squad to be led by Jason Holder with Marlon Samuels as vice-captain.