Chris Gayle Biography
One of the pivotal cricketers who have shaped modern style of cricket, Chris Gayle is West Indian batsman for whom West Indian cricket board is always ready to take chance especially for the sake of sheer cricketing entertainment that he provides in the initial phase of game. Not only that, in a very small span of time he gives a solid start to the team which is then easily carried forward by down the order batsmen on lucky days of West Indian team. He has been a match winner many a times. No wonder, Chris Gayle is nicknamed as Gayle Storm, Gayle Force, World Boss and Master Storm, given his hard hitting, excellent timing and impressive build, perfected to his batting technique. Upon his technique, Gayle maintains:
“It is instinct… We premeditate at times, but most of those things are instinct. When a fast bowler runs in to me, my breathing is controlled. So you keep a still head, slow down your breathing. Sometimes I actually hold my breath, so I can be as still and well-balanced as possible. If you get too excited, you overreact more, and with the adrenalin, you lose focus quickly”
Gayle is also known for his flamboyant lifestyle. He is famous for his dancing on the field as well as off the field. He holds some of the most entertaining CPL parties at his house. Apart from dancing, he is fond of cars, owning quite a few luxury cars like Mercedes and Land Cruiser V8. He also likes to ride his Harley Davidson. He also likes to spend on clothing and is extremely fashion conscious. He is fond of music, especially Bollywood music which he gets accustomed to while playing IPL series. He is very much interactive with fans and is active on social media websites. In his hometown of Kingston he owns a sports bar by the name of “Triple Century Sports Bar”. Having a underprivileged background of himself, Chris Gayle feels a lot for the needy and deprived. He is often involved in charitable events. He also inaugurated “The Chris Gayle Academies” in Jamaica and London which aims to give education, training and employment to those in need.
Personal Life: –
Christopher Henry Gayle, or popularly known as Chris Gayle is West Indian all-round cricketer. He is a left handed batsman and off break bowler. He was born in Jamaica on the 21st of September 1979. He is a West Indian cricketer. His father, Dudley Gayle is a policeman by profession. Gayle is 5th among the 6 children Dudley Gayle has. Gayle completed his high school from Jamaica after which he did not pursue college education. In 2016 Chris Gayle married his girlfriend Natasha Berridge in his hometown of Jamaica. She is mother to his daughter whom they named as “Blush”.
Like most of the people in West Indies, Gayle had love for cricket. But he did not like running very much. This is something which is quite evident in his blasting batting style where focus is more on making sixes rather than running between the wickets. During his teen years his friends often used to tease him by calling him “crampy” because of lazy attitude. Gayle started playing local cricket from the club of Lucas in Kingston, Jamaica. Gayle remarked,
“If it was not for Lucas I don’t know where I would be today. Maybe on the streets.”
Maintaining the reciprocity, Lucas Cricket Club honored Gayle by naming its nursery after the great Jamaican player.
International Career: –
Chris Gayle debuted in first class cricket at a very young age, precisely at 19 years of age he played his first class match. In one day internationals, he played his first match on 11th of September, 1999, against India. He made his test debut in 2000 against Zimbabwe.
Test Cricket: –
Year 2002 proved to be vital in Gayle’s career in which he became the third West Indian batsman, along with Brian Lara and Viv Richards to score more than a 1000 runs in a calendar year. Gayle had this glorious year ended with three test centuries against India. In 2005, he gave splendid performance in the one of the test matches of the series against South Africa. He scored 317 runs that saved the match. In 2009 he made another superb performance against the world champions Australia. In the third test match he scored the fifth ever fastest century in test match, achieving it at only 70 deliveries. He rained sixes and fours to accomplish the century. In July 2012 he gave scintillating performance against New Zealand, scoring 150 runs in the first test match. He has a batting average of 42.19 which is remarkable for any batsman. His highest score is 333 runs in an innings scored against Sri Lanka. He has scored a total of 15 test centuries and 37 fifties. He has also taken 73 wickets in 104 test matches that he has played.
One-Day International Cricket: –
Talking of one day internationals, Gayle is one of the most powerful and mammoth hitters in cricketing world. He has scored more than twice 150 plus runs in one day innings. He is one of the only six players to achieve this record. He has 22 centuries in his one day record. His impressive performance in ICC Champions Trophy earned him the Player of the series award. He had scored a total of 474 runs in the series and took eight wickets altogether. However, he had a poor record in the 2007 World Cup. The only match in which he performed was the final match of West Indies played against England in which he scored 79 runs off 58 deliveries. In 2015 World Cup played in Australia, Chris Gayle played a mammoth stand of 215 runs against Zimbabwe in Canberra. It was for the first time that anybody scored a double hundred in World Cup. He held a record partnership with Marlon Samuels scoring 372 runs. This score of 215 runs is the highest one day score by Gayle. His batting average in one day internationals is 37.18 which is quite good. He has bagged 163 wickets in 269 ODIs that he has played. His best bowling figures are 5 wickets for 46 runs against Australia.
T-20 Cricket: –
This calm and cheerful West Indian all-rounder is not so composed when it comes to batting especially if it is T-20 cricket. It would rather be correct to say that Gayle is most suited to this format of cricket. He holds numerous records in T-2o cricket. He plays for various leagues that hold T-20 matches. He played for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL, played for Lahore Qalandars in the first edition of PSL, while in the second edition he played for Karachi Kings. Other leagues that he played include Big Bash League, Bangladesh Premier League and Sri Lanka Premier League. In the 50 T20 Internationals that he has played he has an average of 35.32 which is quite exceptional. He has a strike rate of 145.49 which is among the highest in T20 cricket. He has many records to his name in T20 cricket. In the first match that he played in World T20 2007 he scored 117 runs against South Africa setting the record of being the first cricketer to score a century in T20 internationals. He became the first batsman to have centuries in all the three formats of cricket. He also holds the record of carrying his bat throughout the innings of a T20 match. The match was played against Sri Lanka during the World T20 semi final stage. He gave some match winning performances in WorldT20 2012 which was won by West Indies. In the semi final match played between Australia and West Indies, Gayle scored sensational 75 not out runs off 41 deliveries that led West Indies to the victory. He was also declared man of the match.
Talking of IPL he has outstanding average of 46.38 in the 82 matches that he has played. His highest total is of 175 runs scored against the team of Pune Warriors India. This is the highest individual T20 score in the world. Ironically he went unsold in the first round of 2011 IPL Auctions. Underrated at that time, this cricketer scored century in his debut IPL match scoring 102 runs off 55 deliveries against Kolkata Knight Riders. He has a total of 5 thrilling centuries in IPL, while he scored 18 half centuries which is pretty good of a record. He has received man of the match award 5 times in IPL and also have been declared Man of the series once. He has an impressive record in Champions League T20, having an average of 42.38 in the 6 games that he has played. His highest score is of 92 runs. One after the other, Gayle had successful tours such as the Stanbic Bank 20 Series, KFC Twenty20 Big Bash and the Bangladesh Premier League.
Of all the T20 tournaments that Gayle has played, the worst he has performed in is the PSL due to his back problems. In the five matches that he played in the first edition, he scored meager 103 runs. He had also been out on naught twice.
Records and achievements: –
There are numerous records under the name of “Sixer”. But just to name the major ones, he is the first player who hit a sixer off the first delivery in a test match. The match was played against Bangladesh in Dhaka. For his country, he is the first one to score more than 7000 runs and bag 150 wickets in one day internationals. He is the first player to score a double ton in World Cup. He also holds the record of scoring fastest double century. In the whole world, Chris Gayle is the only player to have scored triple hundred in test match, double in one day and century in T20 match. He has scored the greatest number of centuries that is 18 in T20 Cricketing format. He holds the record of highest individual score ever made in T20 cricket that is his knock of 175 runs off 66 deliveries in IPL tournament. He shares the record of scoring fastest fifty off only 12 deliveries in T20 with the Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh. He is the first cricketer to have scored centuries in all three formats of cricket. He has been awarded man of the match award 8 times in test matches, 23 times in one day internationals, 9 times in T20 matches and once in a world cup. He has been named Man of the series 11 times in all the three formats of cricket matches that he has played.
Controversies: –
This cool and calm cricketer is often entangled in controversies due to his casual behavior. He had issues with West Indian cricket board over sponsorship matters. In 2006 during ICC Champions Trophy he had exchange of some harsh words with Australian cricketer Michael Clarke on account of which he was charged with 30% of match fees. He also issued public statements against West Indian cricket board which led to severe warning issued to the cricketer. Not only the board he openly criticized the coach Ottis Gibson in April 2011. During Big Bash League 2015-2016 Gayle’s controversial interview to Australian reporter Mel McLaughlin created quite uproar around the world. The cricketer said, “so hopefully we can win this game and we can have a drink after” followed by “Don’t blush, baby”.
The statements were taken as an offense to women. Former Australian cricketer Ian Chappell argued that Gayle should be banned from playing in Australia again. He was fined for improper conduct. Gayle clarified that the statement was just a gesture of humor and nothing more than that. He apologized to the reporter later on. When Gayle’s daughter was born he named her “Blush” after the occurrence of this incident. Gayle had messages of love and best wishes pouring in from world over after the birth of his daughter.
At the time when International teams were not coming to Pakistan due to security reasons, but West Indies team arrived and even played PSL as well. At that time, Chris Gayle declared that Pakistan to be one of the safest places in the world.
