Chappell Seeks Gayle Cricket Ban

Australian cricket great Ian Chappell has called on Cricket Australia to propose a worldwide contracting ban on Chris Gayle following his controversial sideline interview with sports reporter Mel McLaughlin.

Gayle was fined $10,000 by his Big Bash League (BBL) side Melbourne Renegades for his on-air mid-match comments to McLaughlin on Monday night.

The big-hitting West Indian batsman’s hopes of returning next season could also be all but over, given Cricket Australia (CA) has the power to essentially veto any BBL player contract.

Some CA officials wanted Gayle to be suspended over the interview, during which he told McLaughlin she had beautiful eyes and asked her out for a drink before saying “don’t blush, baby”.

Ex-Australian skipper Chappell said CA needed to send a zero-tolerance message on what he deemed “totally inappropriate” behaviour in a sport trying to gain traction with women.

“I wouldn’t have a problem if Cricket Australia said to the clubs, ‘he’s never to be contracted again in this country’,” Chappell said in Sydney, where he participated in an Optus SMB Cricket Legends event alongside Tom Moody.

“And I also wouldn’t have a problem if Cricket Australia said to the ICC, ‘what we’re doing should be worldwide’.

“You’d have to talk to the individual countries then ... but I wouldn’t have a problem if it was tabled at an ICC meeting that Cricket Australia said, ‘this is what we’re doing and we would recommend that everybody else do the same’.

“How are you going to stop it otherwise?”

Gayle has apologised for any offence, saying it was a “simple joke”.

But Chappell thought he was “past help probably now”, and said the focus should be on sending a message to up-and-coming male cricketers.

“If it was a one-off thing, yeah, slap him with a $10,000 fine and say ‘mate, don’t do it again’,” he said.

“But every woman I spoke to [about Gayle] who’s working at the cricket, you got the same answer from.

“They were quite adamant about it.”

Gayle is expected to open for the Renegades on Saturday, when they host Melbourne Stars at Etihad Stadium.

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Gayle Faces Renegades Reprimand

Chris Gayle is likely to be reprimanded after he used a post-match interview to ask out a TV news reporter live on air.

Gayle, 36, had just been dismissed having scored 41 off 15 balls in the Melbourne Renegades’ victory over the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League when he was approached for comments by the Network Ten journalist Mel McLaughlin.

She began by asking him about his innings but he quickly steered the conversation away from cricket, saying: “I just wanted to have an interview with you as well, that’s why I batted so well.”

He then added: “Your eyes are beautiful, hopefully we can win this game and then we can have a drink after as well. Don’t blush, baby.”

McLaughlin attempted to laugh off the invitation by saying: “I’m not blushing.”

Gayle’s attitude attracted a welter of criticism on Twitter, though Network Ten did not help the situation when it described the West Indian batsman’s approach as “smooth” in a tweet that, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, was then deleted.

Anthony Everard, the head of the Big Bash League, tweeted to say: “I heard Chris’s comments and they’re disrespectful and simply inappropriate. We’ll certainly be talking to him and the Renegades about it. This league is all about it’s appeal to kids, families and females. There’s just no place in the BBL – or for that matter cricket anywhere – for that sort of behaviour.”

The Renegades chief executive, Stuart Coventry, said. “We’ll certainly be talking to him in association with Cricket Australia about it. There’s just no place for that sort of behaviour.”

Network Ten were also criticised for posting a tweet from its Ten Sport account that described Gayle’s comments as “smooth”. 

The tweet was deleted following the criticism.

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Scorchers Wacca Sydney Sixers

Two-time defending champion Perth Scorchers are shaping again as the Big Bash League team to beat following a thumping nine-wicket win over the Sydney Sixers at the Waca Ground.

The Scorchers’ trademark defensive bowling was outstanding after the Sixers elected to bat first. The visitors posted a total of just 112-8 and the Scorchers had no trouble chasing it down. Having lost just one wicket the last two games chasing smallish totals, the Scorchers again got the job done with undefeated Shaun Marsh (63 from 54) and Michael Klinger (28 from 22) setting up the run chase. The Scorchers reached 114-1 to win with nine wickets and 33 balls in hand.

Since losing the opening game to the Adelaide Strikers, the Scorchers have beaten the Brisbane Heat, Melbourne Renegades and now Sixers to move to the top of the BBL having played in all four previous finals winning the last two. After winning two of their first three games, the Sixers have lost three straight to be falling out of semi-final contention.

Sixers captain Nic Maddinson won the toss and decided to bat. Despite 47 from 45 by Michael Lumb, they lost wickets consistently to be behind eight ball. The Scorchers’ bowlers David Willey (3-22), Andrew Tye (2-21), Jason Behrendorff (2-24), Joel Paris (1-23) and Brad Hogg (0-20) were outstanding.

Defending 112 was always going to be difficult particularly with the form Marsh and Klinger have been in. The Scorchers openers put on a 65-run stand before Klinger fell for 28 in the 10th over. Marsh continued on from there with an unbeaten 49-run partnership with Marcus Harris (15 from 11) to secure the win.

The Scorchers next play the Adelaide Strikers on Tuesday at Adelaide Oval. The Sixers have eight days until hosting the Brisbane Heat at the SCG. Willey was named man of the match for his three wickets for the Scorchers with the English all-rounder proud to be part of such a dominant team display.

“It was a great performance all-round,” Willey said. “Credit to the lads, we are bowling together as a unit and that makes it very difficult for the opposition when all four of us seamers and obviously Hoggy as well are putting it in the right areas to make it difficult to score. It was a good all-round performance from the bowlers and then the batters did their job to knock it off comfortably.”

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Cool Hand Luke Stars at MCG

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 Cricket fans turned out en masse at the MCG and Luke Wright stepped up on the big stage with a century as Melbourne Stars scored a seven-wicket win over Melbourne Renegades in front of a record Big Bash League crowd on Saturday.

The 80,883-strong crowd easily eclipsed the previous record of 52,637, set at Adelaide Oval, and created an electric atmosphere, with the superb unbeaten innings of 109 off 63 balls from the English import guiding Stars home with five balls to spare.

As much as Wright dazzled, many of those fans came for the tantalising match-up between big-hitters Chris Gayle and Kevin Pietersen. But it failed to live up to the hype with Gayle making just four runs and Pietersen out for six. Having won the toss and sent the Renegades in, the Stars restricted their cross-town rivals to 161-7, then overcame the early losses of Marcus Stoinis and Pietersen to notch their second win from four matches in the tournament.

In a pivotal moment late in the Stars run chase, a dropped catch by Tom Beaton rolled to the boundary for four when Wright was on 64. The Englishman then rubbed salt into the wounds with a pair of towering sixes off the next two deliveries from Xavier Doherty.

Former Star Cameron White marked his first match against his old side with a well made 54 from 39 balls – the highlight of Renegades’ innings. Skipper Aaron Finch passed 4,000 career runs in Twenty20 cricket, but he was dismissed after making 36 off 29 balls. Gayle spooned an easy catch to Pietersen at mid-on off the bowling of John Hastings. Amazingly, Pietersen was speaking to Channel 10 commentators on the live telecast as Hastings came in to bowl to Gayle.

“I will be very happy if that bloke who is down there who is currently batting knocks one up in the air here,” Pietersen said. “We’ve all seen him start slowly but he can explode.” Hastings was the pick of the Stars bowlers with figures of 4-29 from his four overs.

Cricket Australia have apologised to fans stranded outside the MCG before the game after new security measures failed to cope with the record Big Bash League crowd. The previous BBL attendance record of 52,637 set at Adelaide Oval, was broken by the time James Faulkner bowled the first ball of Saturday night’s match, with 56,674 fans inside the ground.

But more than 24,000 people remained outside the venue as the new counter-terrorism fence and security checkpoints slowed entry to the facility. Cricket Australia, however, were quick to defend venue management. “The Melbourne Cricket Ground has been highly proactive in their security measures for major cricket events this summer,” a spokesperson said.

“The match tonight experienced an unprecedented record crowd for domestic cricket. We thank fans for their patience and apologise for the delays experienced entering the ground tonight. The safety and security of our fans, players and officials is always our number one priority and rest assured we’ll continue to work with the MCG to ensure everyone has a fantastic experience at any cricket event this summer.”

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Test Cricket Crowds Given Big Bash

The Big Bash League’s dominance over the summer of Test cricket has been highlighted with another crowd record tumbling.

Defending champions Perth Scorchers announced on Friday their remaining two home fixtures had sold out, making them the first franchise to sell out their full four-match regular season home match schedule in the BBL’s five-year history.

It means the four games at the 20,000-capacity Waca Ground will dwarf the crowd figures from the drawn Test match against New Zealand played at the venue in November.

Only 40,288 people turned out across the five days of the Test, at an average of just over 8,000 fans per day. In comparison, a combined 39,762 fans have already attended the Scorchers’ opening two BBL home games.

It is also anticipated that Saturday’s Melbourne derby between the Stars and Renegades could outdraw the 53,389 who attended the opening day of the Boxing Day Test against the out-matched Windies last week.

Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland has already acknowledged that the BBL has impacted on Test crowds.

“Look, the numbers would indicate that, yes,” Sutherland told ABC Grandstand recently. “The Big Bash League has changed the dynamic a lot, and let’s be open, all over the country it has cannibalised the demand for international cricket.”

Average BBL crowd figures have risen to 22,597 across the 13 matches so far this summer, more than the single-day attendance numbers at any of the Brisbane, Perth and Hobart Tests this year.

The lowest crowd figure at any of this summer’s BBL matches is the 14,868 for the Hobart-Brisbane match, which is still just 475 fans shy of the total attendance across the three days of the Hobart Test match.

CA has already hinted at the inclusion of day-night pink-ball Tests at the Gabba and Blundstone Arena next year to attract more fans, however there is no chance of a shift in Perth given the time zone difference to the east coast.

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Christian Hurricanes Survive Heat

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Hobart allrounder Dan Christian has belted his former Brisbane team-mates out of the Gabba – and probably the Big Bash League – on Tuesday. Christian smashed an unbeaten 56 off just 24 balls – including a massive 117m six which landed on the Gabba roof - to lift the Hurricanes to 4-194 in their 20 overs.

Heat skipper Chris Lynn smashed 101 off just 51 balls in reply to give the hosts hope of a first victory in this summer’s tournament. But Lynn’s dismissal with 16 balls remaining silenced the massive crowd of 29,876 as the winless Heat collapsed to finish 9-176.

Leg-spinner Cameron Boyce, a team-mate of Lynn in Queensland’s state team, was the man who picked up the vital breakthrough on his way to impressive figures of 2-22 off four overs.

The loss means the Heat must win all four of their remaining matches to even have an outside chance of reaching the semi-finals.

Earlier, Christian’s free-wheeling knock came after West Indies leg-spinner Samuel Badree fired for the first time this summer for the Heat. Badree removed Hurricanes openers Ben Dunk (27) and Tim Paine (25) as the visitors battled to 4-129 off 15 overs.

Christian, who played a leading role in the field during the Hurricanes’ win over the Heat in Hobart last week, teed off in the 19th over. The 32-year-old smashed three sixes of Luke Feldman’s (1-53) final over, including a giant hit to cow corner which not only cleared the fence but also the stands.

Despite his personal satisfaction at reaching triple figures, Lynn was gutted that his team had once again come away with nothing.

“Personally hitting the ball better than ever, confident with my body at the moment even though it’s not 100 per cent and enjoying the captaincy,” Lynn told AAP. “I’m hoping what’s in store around the corner is a couple of wins and just go that next level.”

Admitting his monster six was comfortably the biggest of his career, Christian said the thought pattern for his assault had been a simple one.

“I swung as hard as I could and it landed exactly where I wanted it to and came out of the middle of the bat,” he said. “I was waiting for it to come down in front of the sails and it kept going and that’s when I realised it was obviously a decent one.”

Hobart’s next game is against the table-topping Sydney Thunder in Tasmania on New Year’s Day while the Heat welcome the Thunder in their next match on Sunday.

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