He’s the rebel with plenty of causes, most of which have put him at loggerheads with West Indies officialdom, but no-one can deny that Chris Gayle is cricket box-office, a globe-trotting superstar with a bat for hire.
The 35-year-old Jamaican left-hander yesterday smashed the highest individual World Cup score of 215, equalling the highest number of sixes in a one-day international innings with 16 and playing the alpha-male role in a record ODI partnership of 372 with Marlon Samuels in front of 5,544 spectators at Canberra’s Manuka Oval.
And it could have all been very different: he almost fell for another golden duck against Zimbabwe, with only a contentious DRS umpire’s call saving him from extending his recent string of failures.
“When I looked at the replay I thought: ‘Oh you’re kidding me’,” he said.
“Those were not the exact words. There was a swear word.”
His innings came just days after West Indies Cricket Board president Dave Cameroon embarrassingly retweeted a fan’s call for the mercurial batsman to be pensioned off after another flop.
“I was under pressure to score runs, and I kept getting messages from Twitter and on my cell phone from fans. I have never known so many people wanting Chris Gayle to do so well,” Gayle said.
He backed it up with the ball for good measure, taking 2-35.
Gayle is and has been one of his team’s few genuine match-winners in an era when the former kings of the sport have often been reduced to a supporting role.
But his roller-coaster relationship with the WICB has threatened his legacy.
On the eve of the World Cup, he accused the ruling body of victimisation for dropping Dwayne Bravo and Kieran Pollard from the squad as punishment for their role in last October’s abandoned tour of India, a controversial gesture which landed the WICB with a bill for $42 million in compensation.
Gayle, as a result, has been summoned to appear before a disciplinary commission to explain his outburst.
Being carpeted is nothing new for Gayle, the reggae-loving, fast-car driving, unofficial trade unionist for the squad.
Back in 2009, he was one of the leading figures in the decision to boycott a home series against Bangladesh, with all senior players refusing to take part in the Tests and one-dayers in a familiar row over money.
Six years on, Gayle is still in combative mood and on the eve of the team’s departure for the World Cup he refused the offer of a central contract with speculation that with his patience for Test cricket waning, the hard-hitting batsman may call time on his international career.
Not that he’ll be without offers of employment after his market value shot up on a dank, cloudy afternoon at Canberra’s Manuka Oval on Tuesday.
His CV already lists 13 teams – West Indies, Barisal Burners, Dhaka Gladiators, ICC World XI, Jamaica, Jamaica Tallawahs, Kolkata Knight Riders, Matabeleland Tuskers, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Stanford Superstars, Sydney Thunder, Western Australia and Worcestershire.
Gayle is hot-wired for Twenty20 cricket – he hit the first century in Twenty20 internationals against South Africa in the World Twenty20 in 2007 and at the 2013 Indian Premier League he smashed 175.
But his 103 Tests have also proved fruitful since his 2000 debut.
Against Sri Lanka at Galle in 2010, he batted almost ten hours and scored 333 to become the only the fourth batsman to score two triples in Test cricket.
Never a shrinking violet, Gayle’s now turned his infamous lip to South Africa, with whom he’ll do battle on Friday at the Sydney Cricket Ground, warning the West Indies have a “score to settle”.
His last innings against the Proteas a month ago was a golden duck, but now South Africa are on the back foot, coming off a humbling 130-run loss to India at the MCG.
“They beat us 4-1 and they beat us badly at their home towns (in January)…but we’re at neutral grounds now,” Gayle said.
– by Dave James
CHRIS GAYLE’S RECORD THUMPING INNINGS
– Highest ever World Cup innings (215)
– Fastest ever ODI double century (138 balls)
– Highest ever ODI partnership – with Marlon Samuels (372)
– Highest team total on Australian soil (372)
– First player outside India to score 200 in an ODI
– Equal most sixes in an ODI innings (16)
– Third highest ODI innings ever
– His second 100 came off just 33 balls
