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 1 Career 1.1 Twenty20 1.2 Controversies 2 Player statistics 2.1 Test centuries 2.2 One Day International Centuries 2.3 Twenty20 International Centuries 3 Notes 4 References 5 External links

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.

• In the column Runs, * indicates being not out.
• The column title Match refers to the Match Number of his career.

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

References

• 75 Years of West Indies Cricket 1928–2000 by Ray Goble and Keith AP Sandiford ISBN 1-870518-78-0

External links

• Player profile: Chris Gayle from CricketArchive
• Player profile: Chris Gayle from ESPNcricinfo

Royal Challengers Bangalore – current squad 26 Nannes 15 Tiwary 18 Kohli 34 Zaheer 11 Vettori  Langeveldt 17 de Villiers  van der Wath  Rossouw 333 Gayle 12 Pomersbach 23 Dilshan  Pujara  Vandiar Coach: Jennings

Sydney Thunder – current squad 1 Abbott 2 Armstrong 3 Bills 4 Bollinger 5 Butterworth 6 Coyte 7 Cruickshank 8 Day 9 Doran 10 Dunk (†) 11 Edwards 12 Floros 13 Gayle 14 Hughes 15 Khawaja 16 Philipson 17 Smith (†) 18 Warner (c) Coach: Duff

Matabeleland Tuskers – current squad 1 CR Ervine (c) 2 Dabengwa 4 Duffin 5 Ewing 6 Mabuza 9 Meth 12 Mpofu 15 Ncube 17 Ngulube (wk) 18 Nyumbu 19 Staddon 19 Trenchard 20 Querl 21 Gayle 23 Horton(c) 24 Coventry 25 Smith 26 Wheater (wk) 27 SM Ervine Coach: Houghton

West Indies squad – 2003 Cricket World Cup 1 Hooper(c) 2 Jacobs 3 Chanderpaul 4 Collins 5 Collymore 6 Dillon 7 Drakes 8 Gayle 9 Hinds 10 Lara 11 Lawson 12 McLean 13 Powell 14 Samuels 15 Sarwan Coach: Harper

West Indies Squad – 2007 Cricket World Cup 6 Chanderpaul 9 Lara 28 Devon Smith 32 Collymore 39 Powell 45 Gayle 46 Bradshaw 47 Bravo 50 Dwayne Smith 52 Samuels 53 Sarwan 54 Simmons 55 Pollard 75 Taylor 80 Ramdin Coach: King

West Indies Squad – 2007 ICC World Twenty20 6 Chanderpaul 14 Rampaul 17 Collins 20 Edwards 28 Smith 37 Morton 39 Powell 45 Gayle 47 Bravo 50 Smith 52 Samuels 53 Sarwan (c) 66 Deonarine 80 Ramdin 88 Sammy

West Indies Squad – 2009 ICC World Twenty20 Semi-Finalists 6 Chanderpaul 8 Bernard 10 Marshall 20 Edwards 44 Baker 45 Gayle (c) 47 Bravo 53 Sarwan 54 Simmons 55 Pollard 62 Benn 72 Fletcher 75 Taylor 80 Ramdin 88 Sammy Coach: Dyson

West Indies Squad – 2010 ICC World Twenty20 6 Chanderpaul 12 Deonarine 14 Rampaul 24 Roach 33 Miller 45 Gayle (c) 47 Bravo 53 Sarwan 55 Pollard 62 Benn 68 Hinds 72 Fletcher 75 Taylor 80 Ramdin 88 Sammy Coach: Gibson

West Indies Squad – 2011 Cricket World Cup 1 Sammy (c) 2 Gayle 3 Bishoo 4 DM Bravo 5 Pollard 6 Sarwan 7 Smith 8 Thomas (wk) 9 Benn 10 Miller 11 Russell 12 Rampaul 13 Roach 14 Chanderpaul 15 Edwards Coach: Gibson Adrian Barath, Carlton Baugh and Dwayne Bravo were replaced due to injury by Kirk Edwards, Devon Thomas and Devendra Bishoo respectively.

Persondata
Name	Gayle, Chris
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1979-09-21
Place of birth	Kingston
Date of death
Place of death