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.
