Gayle, a Jamaican whose nicknames include "Gayleforce" and "Gaylestorm", turned up for training at Nelson Park yesterday afternoon but didn't make it into the nets because of persistent rain although his teammates warmed up with a football scrimmage.
The 35-year-old left-hander stayed at the team hotel on Wednesday because he was "struggling" with back pain.
Gayle is the top scorer in his side with 279 runs and holds the highest individual scorer title of 215 in the tournament to date, against Zimbabwe.
"We have to play the game to give ourselves a chance so we want sunshine," Windies team manager Sir Richie Richardson said at the hotel foyer yesterday.
"We need two points badly and we need it big," said Richardson of a West Indies side, who will await the result of the Ireland v Pakistan pool B clash unfolding at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday as well.
The Windies can only finish fourth but also need a favourable result in Adelaide to put them mathematically in a better position.
Richardson, a former Windies captain, opted for half-glass full stance despite a dodgy weather forecast.
"It'll be fine on Sunday," said the 53-year-old, who hails from Five Islands Village, Antigua.
Asked how Gayle was recovering, Richardson said the stand-and-deliver merchant was "in good spirits" and "has no problems". "He's like every one of us so, from time to time, he has niggles," he said, adding, as a professional, he would adapt although he had no complaints about his constitution yesterday.
Gayle cleared the rope on the Graeme Lowe Stand side in January 2009 with a hook shot of one too many short-pitched deliveries from former Black Caps seamer Mark Gillespie in the ODI.
The ball bounced on the garage roof of a house, hopped and skipped down the driveway before bouncing uninvited through the front-passenger window of a stationwagon that spectator Kelly Jones was parking along McVay St. Jones got to keep the Gayle-autographed ball after the game.
Richardson said the Windies weren't going to take the Aaqib Javed-coached UAE for granted. The Calypso boys lost their opening ODI World Cup match to minnows Ireland in Nelson on February 16 despite posting a handsome total of 304.
That triggered a somewhat yo-yo campaign that saw them thrash Pakistan by 150 runs at Hagley Oval, Christchurch, on February 21 and blow away Zimbabwe three days later in Canberra before haemorrhaging 405 runs in a loss to South Africa in Sydney on February 27.
However, the Caribbean side believe no one is keen to lock horns with them in the play-offs because of their unpredictable demeanour - that is, beat anyone in the cup on their day. "We can beat anybody in this competition but I've said at the start of the tournament that I hope we don't peak too early."
Having seen UAE on TV, Richardson was mindful the associate nation would not roll over for them.
Richardson said the West Indies wished they were on the top two rungs of their pool at this stage but it wasn't to be.
"We still have a sniff but we need to back ourselves. We know that, given a chance, we can beat anybody once we get past this hurdle of UAE, then anything is possible," he said, sure they have the type of players to do the job.
From Gayle at the top to Darren Sammy, Andre Russell, captain Jason Holder and Denesh Ramdin are a testimony to their batting depth.
"These guys can turn it on so once we click, we're [going to be ] a very dangerous side," Richardson said.
Once the Windies clear the UAE hurdle, the collective are of the mindset that they can conquer anyone. The team have had their share of disruptions well before embarking for the premier ODI tournament amid publicity surrounding a players' impasse with its union and board over contracts although an aura of cheerfulness prevails here.
"It's very important for us to be happy. We cannot worry about what's happening at home. We're here to win the World Cup and focus on what's happening here with the UAE," he said.
