His record past, focus is on Gayle’s future

Chris Gayle hurled his arm-pads and thigh-pads into the stands after the match. (Source: AP)

For a short while at the end of the game, a Chinese whisper circulated about the possibility of Chris Gayle’s retirement. Some even tweeted about it and the press seemed sure that Gayle was going to address the presser and make a statement. “Rubbish” was the media manager would say. Unintentionally, perhaps, but Gayle too played his part in the drama.

Gayle hung around for a while near the boundary at the end of the game. He whispered something into ears of a support staff and soon, his arm-pads were brought out. Just beyond the thirdman boundary, above the dressing rooms, a small group of West Indies fans were sitting, waving the maroon flag. All around them sat New Zealanders screaming out Martin Guptill’s name.

The crowd sensed this could be souvenir time and started to cheer Gayle, who smiled and slowly walked towards the advertising hoardings and looked up at the crowd. Out flew one arm-pad towards the West Indies section, and then he walked over to his left and threw another one into the crowd across the other side of the aisle.

More whispers into the ear. This time his pads were brought out. The cheers got louder now. Gayle grinned and acted as if he was about to throw a pad but stopped. Laughter all around. A pad flew out of his hand and again the same routine — a short walk to his left and another fling.

Gayle then turned to the New Zealanders in the crowd, made a swiping gesture with his hand on his neck to suggest he, and West Indies, were slaughtered! And raised his hands up and brought them down as he bowed to the crowd. Twice. By this time that Chinese whisper seemed to make sense and we rushed to the presser where he was supposed to come. Why else was he giving away his stuff, we wondered.

After a slightly long wait, Jason Holder came and after questions about post-mortem on the defeat were asked, the query about Gayle came up. “Will we see him again in West Indies clothes do you think?” “I can’t speak on his future. At the end of the day that’s up to Chris,” Holder said, leaving everyone a bit puzzled. Does it mean, one can expect that something is imminent? Keep an eye out on his twitter feed for a while. After a few Instagram pictures of bacchanalia, and funny tweets, who knows what might come up.

Source:: Indian Express