Quincentennial Cayman Cricket Celebration organisers have announced Chris Gayle as the third cricketer who will be coming to Cayman on the weekend of July 25-27. The event will feature six former and current West Indies cricketers, including Courtney Walsh and Ramnaresh Sarwan, and is being sponsored by Cable & Wireless, Cayman Airways, Vibe FM, Red Stripe and Guinness, Vision Marketing, Marriott Resort Grand Cayman and Cayman Screen Print,
Electrifying Jamaican opener Chris Gayle has been a leading beneficiary of selectors’ investment in the youngsters over the past two years. His career though, was dealt a temporary blow at the beginning of the Cable & Wireless 2003 series when he was unceremoniously cut from the squad for the first two tests.
Since then, he has toughened his resolve and upped the quality of his game. The results were evident in the Vice-Chancellor’s IX, held in Barbados in April, when he slammed a scintillating 129.
Upon being reinstated to the team for the third test, ‘Crampy’, as he is known to his teammates, played a responsible hand in accumulating a first innings 71 in Barbados and returned to graft a very un-Gayle-like 56. Instead of crashing everything outside the off stump through covers as he was prone to do, he let the ball reach his bat and then guided through the third man region with great delicacy. The result was the same, four runs altogether.
Known the world over as one of the most exciting players in both versions of the game, Gayle has shown evidence of the tireless work he put in while out of the squad, a pleasant sight for the pundits who have criticized him for being unnecessarily ultra-aggressive and consequently injudicious in his shot selection.
Being more cautious did not cause the 23 year-old left-hander to lose his propensity to beat the ball around the park, particularly through the off side. When the time was right and the delivery short and wide, he spared not a millisecond in sending it whistling down to the cover boundary. It is obvious that Gayle’s game now comes, not in the monotonous boundary crashing, but in circumspect shot selection and run accumulation.
After 29 tests Gayle has blasted 1715 runs inclusive of one double century and a century. For the larger part his 204 in Grenada against New Zealand last year was an epic which made many relive the days of Clive Lloyd, the left-handed tormentor from Guyana. While inexplicably cut from the squad for the first two tests against Australia, Gayle’s off spin was sorely missed. His slow direct left-armers have been crucial to a bowling attack in dire need of quality.
So restrictive and penetrating is Gayle’s bowling that he is now rated as one of the top all-rounders in the shorter version of the game with the likes of Shaun Pollock and Jacques Kallis of South Africa and Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka. Gayle has snarled 55 wickets with his steady off-spin and an envious average of a shade under 30.
Gayle’s domineering batting in ODI cricket has him ranked as the tenth best batsman in that form of the game on the respected PriceWaterhouse Coopers rankings. From his 68 one day games he has amassed 2356 runs at a 36 run average with five hundreds and fifteen half tons.
The statistics clearly illustrate this Jamaican’s superiority in cricket’s shorter game, but with the work ethic he displayed upon his recall, he is sure to re-establish his place in the test squad with firmness amongst lively competition from teammates.
In the minds of many, Gayle has all the goods to complete his career as an unquestionable inclusion in the cricket hall of fames across the Caribbean. It is now for him to deliver.
The Quincentennial Cayman Cricket Celebration weekend will feature a fundraising gala dinner on Friday (25th July), kids’ clinics on Saturday (26th July) and an exhibition match on Sunday (27th July). For more information about the weekend, contact organizers Kelly Holding Ltd. on 946 8822 or log on to the Cayman cricket website at www.caymancricket.com.
