Off late, Chris Gayle has been in the form of his life. He personally had a sensational 2015 World Cup and notched up a double ton against Zimbabwe. Even though the West Indians struggled at the grand event, Gayle had a ball and ended the tournament with a half century against New Zealand in the quarter final. He then set the IPL on fire and was superb for the Royal Challengers. Now, he is delivering the goods for Somerset, his side in the Natwest T20 Blast.
Gayle, in just 3 T20 games has already amassed 328 runs for Somerset, including an epic knock of 151*. In a recent interview, he was at his best and spoke about his aspirations to excel further for West Indies. Gayle also said that he still had a lot to deliver for the Calypso Kings.
“I’d love to play a few more international games to be honest with you,” Gayle said. “But we’ll have to wait and see. It’s tough, the travelling is very hectic, sometimes you have to know when you’ve reached the limit in life, sometimes you have to draw the line.”
“But I will still push to play international cricket, when I go back home I will have a discussion with the coach and maybe with the board, so that we can work out Chris Gayle’s future, to see if they are still interested. I am still interested so I’ll look forward to that and see how best it can work out.”
The Jamaican also said that it wouldn’t be fair just to brand him as the T20 King. Gayle said that he was the king of all the formats. “People all say Chris is the king of T20, Chris is the this and that of T20, I am the king of Test cricket too,” he says. “I scored two triple centuries. And 21 ODI centuries. So I’m the king of something. The king of all formats.”
The southpaw spoke about the ongoing series between the West Indians and the Australians. “A Test match is fantastic,” he adds. “It’s a test of character but the entertainment part of cricket is phenomenal. T20 has actually brought new cricket fans into the game, so we have to continue with this as well so that people who didn’t watch can eventually get to watch Test cricket.”
“West Indies are in the middle of a Test series against Australia, so fingers crossed some youngsters get some opportunities and I hope they make the best use of it, we definitely have to look to the future sometimes,” Gayle said.
He opened up about his reputation as a global freelance T20 expert. “It’s good to travel the world and share different dressing rooms with different players over the world,” he says. “you learn more about your culture and you make new friends, you gain more fans around the world as well. It’s been brilliant for me, it’s fantastic, and I’ve got a century for, if not all, then most of these teams. It’s great to achieve such things, but I never know which tournament is coming up next.”
The destructive opener also discussed about his positive frame of mind while batting and said, “I was trying to get a rhythm, but it just didn’t happen so at the same time I said I’m not going to panic, I know that if I bat a bit deeper I should be able to play catch-up and get it back in the bag, and that’s what happened. It was my first game, I hadn’t had a net session, I struggled to get a feel for the conditions so it was just experience.”
“It’s a mind thing,” he adds. “You have to prepare yourself mentally for these sort of situations. I knew it was going to be tough here, I knew it was going to be cold as well, so that’s always a trouble from a West Indian point of view. But I stuck to the task and got across the line.”
With the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) around the corner, Gayle was simply galvanized. “I’m definitely looking forward to the CPL, that’s the party tournament,” he says. “You can have a drink before and after the game – kids, don’t try this at home – but that’s the main objective of CPL, to have fun.
“The overseas guys come to the Caribbean, they go to the beach, have fun, chill, have a bit of rum, and then on the field we play hard cricket because we all want to win the tournament. It’s only going to get bigger and better, the buzz is going off, it’s the third year, looking forward to getting back home and getting into it.”
Towards the end, he had a message for friend, and England discard Kevin Pietersen. “KP, England don’t want you? Okay, come to the CPL. We’ll look after you there, if your own don’t want you, we’ll take you, we’ll accept you with both hands. You play for St Lucia Zouks, entertain the fans there, and it’ll be a cracker,” said Gayle.