My name was used to build Big Bash: Chris Gayle on double standards and sexism row

ByAmlan Majumdar, SportsCafe Editor

06/04/2016

West Indies batsman Chris Gayle has hit out at Big Bash's double standards, and insisted that he was the 'big scapegoat'. Speaking out on the sexism row, the 36-year-old said that Australian cricket used his name to build Big Bash, and now they are determined to tarnish it.

Melbourne Renegades had fined him 10,000 Australian dollars for asking Australian broadcaster Mel McLaughlin out on a date on live televesion during an interview in January.

"I wanted to see your eyes for the first time, hopefully we can win this game and then we can have a drink after as well," Gayle was caught saying on camera during a Big Bash match in January.

The Big Bash franchise have also decided against renewing his contract after Gayle attracted a lot of criticism for his act. Recently, the southpaw once again grabbed the headlines for his comments during an interview with a female journalist of The Times magazine, where he boasted of having a "very, very big bat".

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Now in an interview with the BBC's Stumped programme, Gayle has expressed his disappointment at how he was treated during this whole fiasco.

"I didn't feel like I was being treated right at that particular time. The way of going about it... and the media making a big mockery out of it. To go into details, it was straight up just a lot of double standards. That story didn't get me down one bit. It didn't affect me, I must say. It was just ridiculous how they go about it -- trying to use me as a big scapegoat.

"For someone being part of the Big Bash for so many years, who actually built the Big Bash from day one, the same name they used to build the Big Bash is the same name they want to tarnish. "The Chris Gayle from the first season, if you check it, it was Chris Gayle who started that Big Bash and it blew up this big now -- and next they want to say, 'you should ban Chris Gayle... you should get rid of Chris Gayle from all leagues around the world... Chris is sexist'.

"You can't brand me for running a joke like that, it's just unfortunate and people have their agenda against other people as well," Gayle told BBC in the interview.

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