Gayle Proves Renegade with Moody

Getty Images 

Chris Gayle continues to poke fun at January’s incident with television presenter Mel McLaughlin, telling former Australian player and pundit Tom Moody not to blush in an interview during a Pakistan Super League match.

"Cheers Tom. Don’t blush, Tom,” Gayle said after an interview with former Australia player Moody.

Gayle was fined $10,000 by Big Bash League (BBL) franchise Melbourne Renegades and infuriated Cricket Australia officials at the start of the year when he appeared to make several passes at McLauglin during a live TV interview.

'He does it to humiliate': Fox Sports journalist Neroli Meadows unloads on Chris Gayle

The Jamaican slugger earned widespread condemnation for attempting to flirt with Ten Network’s McLaughlin, telling the journalist “Your eyes are beautiful, hopefully we can have a drink”, before quipping “don’t blush baby”.

The Australian journalist appeared visibly upset, and responded “I’m not blushing”, before a wave of online criticism prompted Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland to applaud condemnation of Gayle’s comments.

“I’m pleased to see the public response to say these comments are not acceptable, we certainly echo those thoughts and comments,” he said.

Gayle said later in an apology: “A lot of things have occurred from a simple comment, a joke, a simple joke. It seems it went out of proportion.”

“There wasn’t anything at all meant to be disrespectful to Mel, or offensive.

“If she felt that way, then I am really sorry for that. There wasn’t any harm meant. It was a simple joke.”

Gayle however then teed off at critics in an impassioned and explicit rant on social media once the BBL season finished.

Chris Gayle hits out at 'haters' in Instagram rant

Currently in the United Arab Emirates taking part in Pakistan’s T20 league, Gayle has now revisited the episode unprompted.

After the comment to Moody, the West Indies star retweeted a supporter who invites his current Pakistan Super League employers to also fine the batsman.

It has recently been confirmed that Somerset will invite Gayle to play for them in the T20 Blast.

Related articles

• IPL auction: Unwanted two months ago, Shane Watson surges to $2 million pay day
• Sir Viv backs new T20 league to take off
• Michael Clarke, former Australia captain, announces return to cricket
• Amir takes hat-trick as Karachi Kings easily overcome Lahore Qalandars
• Ashleigh Barty returns to tennis
• Renegades see Stars as they taste defeat in second derby

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.

Related articles

• Badree, Simmons named for Heat BBL debuts
• KFC Big Bash League 2015-16 Schedule | Big Bash League Fixtures 2015-16
• Badree eyes 'great things' with BBL Heat
• Big Bash: Torn side muscle forces Canberra's Nick Winter out of Renegades squad
• Big Bash: Kevin Pietersen to fly back home to attend birth of second child
• Renegades' Ferguson to have knee scans

Windies Chris Faces Another Gayle

West Indian cricketer Chris Gayle, who on Tuesday half heartedly apologised and was fined for inappropriate remarks he made to a female TV interviewer, is now facing accusations he exposed himself to another woman.

The big-hitting left-hander received an angry backlash for his comments and was branded “disrespectful and simply inappropriate” after he asked journalist Mel McLaughlin for a drink in a live television interview during a Big Bash League clash in Australia.

He said to her: “I wanted to see your eyes for the first time, hopefully we can win this game and then we can have a drink after as well. Don’t blush, baby.”

Gayle, 36, offered a half-hearted apology to McLaughlin, saying his remarks were meant as a light-hearted joke. However, the BBL took a dim view of his comments and fined him £5,000.

Now it has been alleged that he exposed himself to a female member of staff attached to the West Indies squad during last year’s World Cup in Sydney.

The Sydney Morning Herald claims that the woman went into the West Indies dressing room, believing it was empty, as she looked for a sandwich. She encountered Gayle and another player, and the former West Indies captain reportedly allowed his towel to drop, revealing his genitals, before saying: “Are you looking for this?”

She complained to the West Indies management, who have so far declined to comment.

Gayle’s own management team have also not yet given a comment.

Related articles

• Big Bash: Kevin Pietersen to fly back home to attend birth of second child
• Chris Gayle plans test return in 2016
• Chris Gayle defends Australia absence but former West Indies skipper plans Test cricket return during 2016
• Chris Gayle hopes for West Indies Test return in 2016
• Badree eyes 'great things' with BBL Heat
• Big Bash: Torn side muscle forces Canberra's Nick Winter out of Renegades squad

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.

Related articles

• Chris Gayle plans test return in 2016
• Chris Gayle defends Australia absence but former West Indies skipper plans Test cricket return during 2016
• KFC Big Bash League 2015-16 Points Table | KFC Big Bash Points Table | BBL 5
• Big Bash: Torn side muscle forces Canberra's Nick Winter out of Renegades squad
• Big Bash: Kevin Pietersen to fly back home to attend birth of second child
• Badree eyes 'great things' with BBL Heat

Windies Bashed by Lyon and O'Keefe

Getty Images

Australian spinners Nathan Lyon and Stephen O’Keefe took key wickets between the Sydney downpour to peg West Indies back to 207-6 at the end of a weather-disrupted opening day of the dead rubber third Test on Sunday.

More than two hours and 45 minutes of play were lost to rain in a stop-start day at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), where the tourists fell away in the early evening gloom after winning the toss and making a solid start. Denesh Ramdin, unbeaten on 23, and Carlos Brathwaite (35 not out) will resume on day two, weather permitting.

The hosts had rolled the dice on the twin spin attack at the SCG for the first time in a decade and got their reward when Lyon and O’Keefe got plenty of turn off a straw-coloured wicket. Off-spinner Lyon (2-68) produced a stunning delivery that pitched wide and turned in to take the bail off Jermaine Blackwood’s off stump for 10 and returned after the second rain break to remove danger man Kraigg Brathwaite for 85.

Left-arm orthodox spinner O’Keefe (1-42) then pitched in to have West Indies captain Jason Holder caught superbly at short leg by Joe Burns and claim his first test wicket on Australian soil. Trailing 2-0 in the three-match series after thumping defeats in Hobart and Melbourne, West Indies had started the day by building on their improved batting performance in the second Test.

After the early loss of opener Shai Hope (nine), Kraigg Brathwaite and Darren Bravo (33) looked in fine nick as they ushered the tourists to lunch at 92 for one. Australia’s bowlers emerged from the break re-energised, however, and James Pattinson got the breakthrough when Bravo’s miscued pull sent the ball flying to Usman Khawaja running in from the deep.

That broke a 91-run partnership and brought Marlon Samuels to the crease looking to break his run of eight test innings without getting to the 20-run mark. He failed in farcical fashion looking for a quick single that always looked like a gamble, left stranded when Brathwaite scuttled back to his crease as Peter Nevill broke the stumps.

After a long glare at his partner, Samuels headed back to the pavilion with four runs to his name and the rest of the players and umpires followed in his wake as heavy rain came down on the ground. Kraigg Brathwaite had brought up his eighth test half-century just before lunch by clipping all-rounder Mitchell Marsh past long leg for two runs off the 78th ball he faced.

He fell 15 runs shy off his fifth test century when Lyon got a little bit of extra bounce to a delivery which caught the opener’s glove and was snaffled up by Steve Smith at slip. “I think the spinners bowled well, it is just about trusting your defence and backing your shots and you can score,” said Brathwaite after play. “(But) on a first day pitch that spins like that, once we get a score above 300, we put ourselves in a good position.”

For Brathwaite and his teammates the SCG pitch had presented its challenges. “It’s good fun to bowl on for spinners,” spinner Nathan Lyon said after claiming his 100th test wicket in Australia. “It’s a big challenge for me, it’s spinning pretty big and it’s got decent bounce. So it’s a challenge for me to try and hit the stumps. I’m enjoying that challenge right now.”

Related articles

• Big Bash: Kevin Pietersen to fly back home to attend birth of second child
• Hussey laughs off World Twenty20 comeback chatter
• Audit report queries ranking, choice of Marriott contractor
• KFC Big Bash League 2015-16 Points Table | KFC Big Bash Points Table | BBL 5
• Badree, Simmons named for Heat BBL debuts
• Sydney derby to kickstart Big Bash League

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.

Related articles

• KFC Big Bash League 2015-16 Schedule | Big Bash League Fixtures 2015-16
• Chris Gayle plans test return in 2016
• Big Bash League 2015: Michael Lumb drops sitter for Sydney Sixers
• Big Bash League 2015: Michael Lumb drops sitter for Sydney Sixers
• Sydney derby helps Big Bash to best season opening yet helping Ten win the night
• Chris Gayle hopes for West Indies Test return in 2016