Chris Gayle

Chris Gayle
Chris Gayle at the Docklands, 2005
Personal information
Full name Christopher Henry Gayle
Born 21 September 1979 (1979-09-21) (age 32)
Kingston, Jamaica
Nickname Galy
Height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Batting style Left-handed
Bowling style Right arm off break
Role All-Rounder
International information
National side West Indies
Test debut 16 March 2000 v Zimbabwe
Last Test 5 December 2010 v Sri Lanka
ODI debut 11 September 1999 v India
Last ODI 6 February 2011 v Sri Lanka
ODI shirt no. 45
Domestic team information
Years Team
1998–2008, 2010 - Jamaica
2005 Worcestershire
2009–11 Western Warriors
2008–2010 Kolkata Knight Riders
2011- Royal Challengers Bangalore
2011- Sydney Thunder
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA
Matches 91 223 165 284
Runs scored 6,373 7,917 12,127 10,138
Batting average 41.65 39.00 44.74 39.60
100s/50s 13/33 19/42 29/59 21/58
Top score 333 153* 333 153*
Balls bowled 6,857 6,900 12,133 8,930
Wickets 72 156 129 210
Bowling average 41.59 34.91 38.87 32.17
5 wickets in innings 2 1 2 1
10 wickets in match 0 n/a 0 n/a
Best bowling 5/34 5/46 5/34 5/46
Catches/stumpings 85/– 96/– 143/– 118/–
Source: Cricinfo, 6 February 2011

Christopher Henry "Chris" Gayle (born 21 September 1979) is a Jamaican cricketer who currently plays international cricket for the West Indies. He captained the West Indies' Test side from 2007 to 2010. He plays domestic cricket for Jamaica, and has also represented Worcestershire, the Western Warriors and the Kolkata Knight Riders. He is currently signed with Royal Challenger Bangalore in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League. He is one of only four players who have scored two triple centuries at Test level: 317 against South Africa in 2005, and 333 against Sri Lanka in 2010. He is considered one of the greatest hitters of all time.

Contents

Career

Gayle played for the West Indies at youth international level prior to making his first-class debut aged 19 for Jamaica. He played his first One Day International 11 months later, and his first Test match 6 months after that. Gayle, who normally opens the innings when he plays for the West Indies, is a destructive batsman who is most effective playing square of the wicket. In July 2001, Gayle (175), together with Daren Ganga (89) established the record for opening partnerships at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo when they put on 214 together against Zimbabwe.

However, generally speaking he had a slow start to his international career, but invigorated it in 2002, ending the year with three centuries against India in November and becoming the third West Indian to score 1,000 runs in a calendar year, along with Vivian Richards and Brian Lara. He is one of only six players in One Day International history to have three or more scores of 150. In 2005, Gayle was dropped for the first Test against South Africa along with six other players following a dispute over sponsorship issues (see below). He returned for the second test but had a poor series until the fourth Test, where he made a match-saving 317. It was the first ever triple century against South Africa and up until Mahela Jayawardene made 374, it was the highest individual Test score against them.

In August 2005, Gayle joined Worcestershire for the rest of the English season, playing eight matches. He made two half-centuries in three first class matches and two half-centuries in five one-day matches, and won one Man of the Match award in the one-day National League. However, Worcestershire were relegated after Gayle made 1 in the final match against Lancashire. Gayle was named Player of the 2006 Champions Trophy, where the West Indies nearly defended the title which they won in 2004, being defeated in the final by Australia. Gayle scored three centuries and totaled 474 runs, 150 more than any other batsman, and also took eight wickets in as many matches. Gayle, in keeping with the rest of the West Indies team, had a poor World Cup in 2007. He recorded a series of low scores; the one exception being a blistering 79 off 58 balls against England in the West Indies' final match.

On 17 December 2009 in the Australia v West Indies 3rd Test Chris Gayle scored the fifth fastest century in Test match history. He reached the century in just 70 balls. However he was shortly after dismissed for 102 runs. This feat included a flurry of runs thanks to some big hitting sixes. One of the sixes hit the Lillee Marsh stand's roof in a monstrous hit that was estimated by commentator, Ian Healy, to be approx 140 metres long. On 16 November 2010, he became the fourth cricketer to score two triple centuries in Test cricket after Donald Bradman, Brian Lara and Virender Sehwag.[2]

Twenty20

Gayle holds the record for the highest innings in a Twenty20 International, having scored 117 against South Africa in the first match of the 2007 World Twenty20,[3] His innings was the first century in international Twenty20 cricket, and one of only four scored to date (the other three being Brendon McCullum's 116 not out, Suresh Raina's 101 and Mahela Jayawardene's 100). Because of this, he, Jayawardene, Suresh Raina and McCullum share the honour of being the only batsmen to score a century in each of international cricket's three formats.[4] In the semi-final match of the 2009 World Twenty20 against Sri Lanka, he became the first international player to carry his bat through the entire innings in this format of the game. In April 2008, Gayle was auctioned by the franchise Kolkata Knight Riders of the Indian Premier League, but missed the opening games due to a Sri Lanka tour to the Caribbean. When he finally joined the team, he missed out on the action due to a groin injury he picked up during that tour. Afterwards, he left to join the West Indies team for a home series against Australia, therefore not playing in the inaugural version of the IPL at all. On 1 July 2009, Gayle signed with the Western Australia Warriors for the Australian Domestic Twenty20 tournament known as the Big Bash for the 2009–10 season.

He played in the second IPL competition in early 2009, arriving for an away Test series against England very late, earning criticism about his commitment.[5] His Test series went poorly, and the West Indies went on to lose both the Test and ODI series. Gayle, however, went to on score a match winning 88 in the first official match of the 2009 Twenty20, in a surprise victory over Australia.[6]

In 2011, after being left out of the initial part of the West Indies T20 and one-day home series against Pakistan, Gayle opted to join the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League.[7] In his first game against his previous team Kolkata Knight Riders, he scored 102 off 55 balls, hitting 10 fours and 7 sixes.[8] On May 6, 2011, he scored another century, 107 off 49 balls against the Kings XI Punjab, which included 10 fours and 9 sixes.[9] In the next match against Kochi Tuskers Kerala, he scored 37 runs in one over, which included 3 sixes, 3 fours and a no ball which was hit for a six.[10][11] Although many people cite him as having hit the over for 37, one run was awarded as an extra due to the no ball. He can therefore be said to have hit 36 off an over which went for 37. Gayle won the Orange Cap Award for scoring the most runs in the tournament amassing 608 runs in 12 matches.[12] He was instrumental in many victories for the Royal Challengers Bangalore and received five man of the match awards for his performances.[13] In the 2011 Champions League Twenty20, Chris Gayle was the second highest run-scorer in the competition, behind David Warner, with 257 runs from 6 matches at an average of 42.83 and a top score of 92, and was one of the star players.[14]

Following his prolific performances and the rubber-stamp being stamped that he is the ultimate pinch-hitter, Gayle was signed by Zimbabwean franchise Matabeleland Tuskers, for the 2011-12 Stanbic Bank 20 Series.[15] As Gayle later recalled it was valuable practice ahead of the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash, where he had signed for the Sydney Thunder.[16] [17] Gayle hoped his first appearance in the tournament was a success, and he gave the spectators something to cheer about. Gayle was the second West Indian to be signed in the event, after the legendary Brian Lara had signed for Southern Rocks the previous season.

Gayle had tremendous success in that tournament. He was the leading run-scorer in that series with 293 runs, a top score of 109, and an average over 50. He was also the best batsman of the tournament.[18] Ironically, the only century Gayle scored in the event ended in defeat as Mid West Rhinos's Brendan Taylor's outstanding 75* outlasted his team.[19] The Tuskers could not win the tournament as the were overpowered by Mashonaland Eagles's Ryan ten Doeschate's brilliant 121* off 58 and despite Gayle scoring a blistering half-century, it was not to see his home through.[20]

Controversies

Despite being regarded as a calm, cool cricketer, [21] In 2005 Gayle was involved in the dispute between the West Indies Cricket Board and a number of players over sponsorship issues. These players had personal sponsorship deals with Cable and Wireless, who used to sponsor West Indian cricket. However, since the West Indies had recently become sponsored by Cable and Wireless' rivals Digicel the West Indies Cricket Board demanded the players dropped their Cable and Wireless deals. When the players refused to back down, the West Indies Cricket Board dropped them for the first Test against South Africa.[22] Gayle later cut his deal with Cable and Wireless and rejoined the side for the second Test. He was charged with conduct contrary to the spirit of cricket during a Test against New Zealand in March 2006, but was subsequently found not guilty.[23] Later that year, during October's Champions Trophy tournament in India, he was fined 30 percent of his match fee after repeated verbal exchanges with the Australian batsman Michael Clarke.[24] He also publicly criticised the West Indies Cricket Board during the 2007 tour of England which led to an official reprimand and warning.[25]

Gayle also received criticism in early 2009 during West Indies' tour of England, where he commentated that he did not want to captain the West Indies anymore given the pressures involved, and that he "wouldn't be so sad" if Test cricket was superseded by Twenty20 cricket in the future.[5] From the West Indies, both Viv Richards and Gary Sobers criticised Gayle's comments, as did opposite number Andrew Strauss.[26] Gayle later commented that his statement had been quoted out of context, according to Julian Hunte, President of the West Indies Cricket Board.[27] In an interview with Michael Atherton at the conclusion of a West Indies defeat in their tour of England, Gayle stated that he was not going to resign the captaincy.[28]

Player statistics

Test centuries

The following table illustrates a summary of the Test centuries scored by Chris Gayle.

Test Centuries of Chris Gayle[29]
# Runs Match Against City/Country Venue Year Result
1 175 10  Zimbabwe Bulawayo, Zimbabwe Queens Sports Club 2001 Won
2 204 23  New Zealand St. George's, Grenada National Cricket Stadium 2002 Drawn
3 116 36  South Africa Cape Town, South Africa Newlands 2004 Drawn
4 107 37  South Africa Centurion, South Africa SuperSport Park 2004 Lost
5 141 42  Bangladesh Gros Islet, St Lucia Beausejour Cricket Ground 2004 Drawn
6 105 47  England London, England The Oval 2004 Lost
7 317 50  South Africa St. John's, Antigua Antigua Recreation Ground 2005 Drawn
8 197 75  New Zealand Napier, New Zealand McLean Park 2008 Drawn
9 104 76  England Kingston, Jamaica Sabina Park 2009 Won
10 104 80  England Port of Spain, Trinidad Queen's Park Oval 2009 Drawn
11 165* 84  Australia Adelaide, Australia Adelaide Oval 2009 Drawn
12 102 85  Australia Perth, Australia WACA Ground 2009 Lost
13 333 89  Sri Lanka Galle, Sri Lanka Galle International Stadium 2010 Drawn

One Day International Centuries

One Day International Centuries of Chris Gayle[30]
# Runs Match Against City/Country Venue Year Result
1 152 32  Kenya Nairobi, Kenya Simba Union Ground 2001 Won
2 103 54  India Nagpur, India VCA Ground 2002 Won
3 140 56  India Ahmedabad, India Sardar Patel Stadium 2002 Lost
4 101 57  India Vadodara, India Reliance Stadium 2002 Won
5 119 68  Kenya Kimberley, South Africa De Beers Diamond Oval 2003 Won
6 153* 79  Zimbabwe Bulawayo, Zimbabwe Queens Sports Club 2003 Won
7 112* 83  Zimbabwe Harare, Zimbabwe Harare Sports Club 2003 Won
8 152* 88  South Africa Johannesburg, South Africa The Wanderers Stadium 2004 Lost
9 132* 100  England London, England Lord's 2004 Won
10 132 116  South Africa Bridgetown, Barbados Kensington Oval 2005 Lost
11 124 124  Pakistan Gros Islet, St Lucia Beausejour Cricket Ground 2005 Lost
12 123 134  India Kingston, Jamaica Sabina Park 2006 Lost
13 104* 145  Bangladesh Jaipur, India Sawai Mansingh Stadium 2006 Won
14 101 149  England Ahmedabad, India Sardar Patel Stadium 2006 Lost
15 133* 150  South Africa Jaipur, India Sawai Mansingh Stadium 2006 Won
16 110* 186  Canada King City, Canada Maple Leaf Cricket Club 2008 Won
17 113 187  Pakistan Abu Dhabi, UAE Sheikh Zayed Stadium 2008 Lost
18 122 189  Pakistan Abu Dhabi, UAE Sheikh Zayed Stadium 2008 Lost
19 135 190  New Zealand Napier, New Zealand McLean Park 2008 Lost

Twenty20 International Centuries

Twenty20 International Centuries of Chris Gayle[31]
# Runs Match Against City/Country Venue Year Result
1 117* 4  South Africa Johannesburg, South Africa The Wanderers Stadium 2007 Lost

Notes

  1. ^ http://www.bigstarcricket.com/bs/players/gayle/about.shtml
  2. ^ "West Indies' Chris Gayle hits 333 against Sri Lanka". BBC News Sport. BBC. 16 November 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/9193836.stm. Retrieved 16 November 2010. 
  3. ^ Gayle ton fails to stop S Africa, BBC News, retrieved 11 September 2007
  4. ^ List of highest individual International Twenty20 innings, Cricinfo, retrieved 20 January 2008
  5. ^ a b "Gayle ponders Test future". CricInfo. 13 May 2009. http://content.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/404214.html. Retrieved 18 May 2009. 
  6. ^ Monga, Sidharth (6 June 2009). "Gayle and Fletcher blast through Australia". CricInfo. ESPN. http://www.cricinfo.com/wt202009/content/current/story/407736.html. Retrieved 6 June 2009. 
  7. ^ "Gayle joins RCB". The Hindu. 20 April 2011. http://www.hindu.com/2011/04/20/stories/2011042066811900.htm. Retrieved 2011-05-18. 
  8. ^ "Indian Premier League - 24th match Kolkata Knight Riders v Royal Challengers Bangalore". ESPNCricinfo. 22 April 2011. http://www.espncricinfo.com/indian-premier-league-2011/engine/match/501222.html. Retrieved 2011-05-18. 
  9. ^ "Indian Premier League - 47th match Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kings XI Punjab". ESPNCricinfo. 6 May 2011. http://www.espncricinfo.com/indian-premier-league-2011/engine/match/501244.html. Retrieved 2011-05-18. 
  10. ^ Most expensive over in IPL. Gayle hits 37 runs.
  11. ^ "The 37-run over". ESPNCricinfo. 8 May 2011. http://www.espncricinfo.com/indian-premier-league-2011/content/story/514296.html. Retrieved 2011-05-18. 
  12. ^ "IPL 2011: Who wins what". NDTV. 29 May 2011. http://sports.ndtv.com/ipl/news/item/174049-ipl-2011-who-wins-what. Retrieved 2011-05-29. 
  13. ^ "Numbers game of CSK v/s RCB Match". Krishcricket.com. http://www.krishcricket.com/statshighlights/statshighlights.aspx?statsid=697&matchid=1222. Retrieved 2011-05-29. 
  14. ^ Nokia Champions League T20, 2011/12 / Records / Most runs ESPNCricinfo. Retrieved 16 December 2011
  15. ^ Gayle to play T20s in Zimbabwe ESPNCricinfo. Retrieved 16 December 2011
  16. ^ Gayle and Nannes gear up for Zimbabwe challenge ESPNCricinfo. Retrieved 16 December 2011
  17. ^ Oz Big Bash: Gayle signs up for Sydney Thunder Rediff. Retrieved 16 December 2011
  18. ^ Records / Stanbic Bank 20 Series, 2011/12 / Most runs ESPNCricinfo. Retrieved 16 December 2011
  19. ^ Gayle century in vain as Rhinos advance ESPNCricinfo. Retrieved 16 December 2011
  20. ^ ten Doeschate takes Eagles into final ESPNCricinfo. Retrieved 16 December 201
  21. ^ "Player Profile: Chris Gayle". CricInfo. http://content.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/51880.html. Retrieved 18 May 2009. 
  22. ^ West Indies sponsor rejects plans, BBC Sports, retrieved on 20 January 2008
  23. ^ Gayle cleared of conduct charges, Fox Sports Australia, retrieved 20 January 2008
  24. ^ Gayle fined for misconduct, ECB retrieved 20 January 2008
  25. ^ Gayle in hot water, ECB retrieved 20 January 2008
  26. ^ Brown, Alex (13 May 2009). "Richards and Sobers defend primacy of Test cricket". CricInfo. http://content.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/404217.html. Retrieved 18 May 2009. 
  27. ^ "Gayle's comments an 'unfortunate development' – Hunte". CricInfo. 13 May 2009. http://content.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/404111.html. Retrieved 18 May 2009. 
  28. ^ Interview with Michael Atherton – Award Presentation following England v West Indies, 2nd Test 14–18 May 2009. Sky Sports 18 May 2009.
  29. ^ Statsguru: Chris Gayle, Cricinfo, 12 March 2010.
  30. ^ Statsguru: Chris Gayle, Cricinfo, 12 March 2010.
  31. ^ Statsguru: Chris Gayle, Cricinfo, 11 March 2010.

References

External links