ICC World Cup 2019 | Whole world will miss Chris Gayle when he retires, claims Shai Hope
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Shai Hope has stated that the day Chris Gayle bids adieu to the game will be a sad one for the cricketing fraternity, with the opener set to retire soon. Hope went on to discuss his country’s dismal World Cup campaign and said that they have to learn their lessons and move on from the experience.
With more than 450 international appearances and 19,000-plus international runs, it has been a memorable ride for Chris Gayle. Considered by many as one of his country’s greatest ever, the swashbuckling opener played his last World Cup game on Thursday and was greeted with a rousing ovation as he stepped off the field after winning the game. Gayle has announced that he’ll hang his boots for the national team after India’s tour of the Carribean set to begin soon after the World Cup.
"Probably the whole world will miss him (Gayle) when he goes. It's going to be a sad day for cricket," batsman Shai Hope said while speaking at the post-match press conference, reported TOI.
"Probably sunglasses. There are too many things you can pick from Chris," joked Hope.
Gayle’s last World Cup proved to be disastrous as the Windies managed to win only two of their nine games, crashing out of the tournament way before the last match was played. Having entered the competition through qualification, the Carribean team had a very inexperienced and young squad with limited expectations.
"It was definitely a learning experience, something I will never forget. Playing each game in this format you obviously have to be the better team on the day to progress in the tournament. Regardless of what happens in any team we have to go out there and play cricket. We've got to improve from this experience, I'm sure we are going to use this is as a platform for the next four years so we can have something stronger and build more momentum.
"In a tournament like this you have to play your best game in each game. If you muck up you are basically out of the tournament. I think we lost some of those games in some crucial situations. We basically allowed (Australia) to get that total. I still think we had a decent batting platform to chase the runs and didn't play the situation as well as we could have. New Zealand? Yeah, the same thing. We had them in a spot of bother as well. You have to really grind them and they got away," Hope concluded.
