Perpetually under-appreciated and presently misunderstood – The legacy of Chris Gayle
Very few cricketers represent the spirit of T20 cricket like Chris Gayle does – carefree, frantic, and at times over the top. But almost tragically though, fans and critics find it hard to look beyond his amusing antics, on the field and off it, to acknowledge, and fully appreciate, how dominant this enigmatic Caribbean southpaw has been in the shortest format of the game. Someone had to say it, so here it is – Chris Gayle is undoubtedly the greatest batsman we have witnessed in T20's short yet eventful history so far.
Reasons?
One, Gayle, quite unsurprisingly, has the most runs in T20 cricket, almost 1700 more than the next man. A little more astonishing is his 43.77 average for his 8600 odd runs, striking at 150. Only ones with better averages are Babar Azam and Chris Harris. Wondering who these chaps are? Never mind. Suffice it to know that both together have just 50 matches between them. Gayle has 234.
But so what? So what if he hit almost three times the sixes as any other batsman in T20 history? So what if he has 16 centuries, 9 more than the next man, Brendon McCullum, not to mention the most half-centuries as well? Nobody cares that he is the only player till date to have a triple-century in Tests, a double century in ODIs, and a century in T20 internationals. His innings of 175*, highest individual score in T20 cricket, is of utter insignificance to us. And who gives a damn if he has to his name the fastest century and the fastest half-century in cricket. All we know that he is that self-proclaimed superstar from Jamaica who hurt the sentiments of the Australian public by making 'sleazy' comments on TV reporter Mel McLaughlin.
Gayle is at the twilight of his illustrious international career, not sure about the league one though. And during his almost 16-year long career, Gayle has had little altercations with anybody. You google up “cricket fights”, and type the name of any other modern superstar of the game. Be it Kohli, be it Pietersen, you mostly find a myriad of those there.
But not Gayle. You will only find his antics, be it play-acting with Graeme Smith, or showcasing his brilliant soccer skills with a cricket ball, on a cricket field, or warning the opposition on the radio that he is going to 'come after them', or his extremely adorable Gangnam style, simultaneously while winning a world cup for his team. But no confrontation. He is just this big, jolly man, who hits sixes for the fun of it; who is as light-hearted as his batting is ferocious.
Gayle's camaraderie with his fellow teammates is unquestionable. Gayle is well respected by each of his teammates, and he stands like a rock behind them, both on and off the field. After being narrowly selected to the West Indian side for CWC 2015, Gayle publicly blasted WICB's decision to oust senior players like Bravo and Pollard from the squad.
But apart from the board, Gayle has almost nil hostilities with anyone else. That constant, broad, perennially imprinted smile is quite enough to brush aside any minor displeasure one might have with him. His exuberant nature, combined with his lazy flamboyancy, is disarming. In the IPL, he is the most gladsome guy in every team he plays for, and is on good terms with people of all ages and temperaments, be it the cool and calm Indian captain Dhoni; be it the aged, yet exuberant Vijay Mallya, or the new kid on the block Sarfaraz Khan.
Unfortunately, I was not able to follow Big Bash League much. So, when I heard there is a controversy going on regarding Gayle in BBL, I was excited out of my bones. What now? Maybe he broke the ball in two, maybe he felled an umpire with his shot, or maybe he moonwalked. Then I saw the video.
I replayed the two-minute video at least three times, and could not understand what was wrong. And somebody even compared that interview to Frank Sinatra's infamous comments about the Australian press women, back in '74. But what is incomprehensible to me is how asking someone for a drink is equivalent to calling all press-women 'hookers'. And, Gayle, unlike Sinatra, instantly apologized. What followed was an avalanche of derision from every corner. The derision in itself is vexing, but even more interesting are the motives of the critics.
Everybody including some of the commentators were clearly amused by the comments. The team tweeted the incident using '#smooth'. Until someone decided this is not funny. And then everybody figured.
It became TRP and goodwill for the channel, and for Cricket Australia. Ian Chappell demanded that Gayle be removed from all competitive cricket around the world. Really? By that logic, the brothers should have been in jail for that 'underarm' incident.
Flintoff called him 'a bit of a chop', while being careful to state that he was a big fan of Gayle actually. Some Chris Rogers, expressed his bottled-up displeasure about Gayle in general, to seem a bit important. Mel obviously was distraught now, considering half of Australia's female media swore Gayle had misbehaved with them at some point of time.
Gayle only missed debarment because it was a one-off thing. Pretty obvious because everybody outside of Australia generally gets his jokes.
Anyways, Gayle put forward a second apology after that. That apart, all this furore around the thing did not bother him. After all, years of crusading against his dictatorial cricket board made him game for battle against authorities.
But then, it did not look apt. Though, at the end of it all, when Gayle' team Melbourne Renegades bowed out, he was fourth placed in the run tally in BBL. Just behind the new eye-candies of Australia, Head and Lynn. Only difference being that nobody looks there. Nobody acknowledges the fact that he scored a 15-ball-41 right before that interview.
But as for Gayle himself, this looked insufficient. The Gayle-force demanded little more feu d'artifice. So what does Gayle do?
He goes out and smashes the fastest half-century in the last match of the tournament.
Gayle neither walks the line, nor holds himself back. He doesn't need to. His freestyle, hard-hitting remarks are in perfect sync with his batting. In that sense, he is much like Muhammad Ali. And like the aforementioned, he suffered.
(Also Read: Mohammad Amir – everybody deserves a second chance)
Performance done. Now the theatrics. Gayle, pretty unequivocally, told everybody what he thought of the criticism. All the disgruntled past cricketers were dealt with, the media was given a mention. He elaborated on how little the league means to him. And the Gayle show moved on to Jamaica, to his palatial mansion, to strippers and booze, and someplace where people are less serious.
India adores West Indian cricketers. Their brand of play exudes Calypso magic, makes you crave their sense of celebrating life. Sammy, Bravo, Russell, Cooper, Narine, Smith (Dwayne one), and Pollard... All of these are extremely famous and revered in India. No IPL carnival can go without these, and that might be what Gayle meant by building leagues. But the crown goes to him without doubt, the best of the lot - somebody who can over-shadow Virat Kohli would have to be.
Somebody who can hit the highest individual score in T20, contribute in the highest team total in T20, the fastest hundred in Cricket, and take two wickets, that too after warning the batsman (with a good-humored throat-slashing gesture), all in a single match. Somebody who can decimate oppositions like South Africa and Australia in their own backyard like they were school kids. Someone who does Gangnam and push-ups on the pitch. Somebody who can hit a 100 in 45 balls, wearing sunglasses.
The hundred is not relevant. Many do it. But the way he gets to it - that's unmatched. A hilarious taunt to the bowler, a show of biceps, celebrating the hundred with a special dance move, that's what's priceless.
(Also Read: The Abraham Benjamin Effect)
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