Debasis Sen, Kingston (Jamaica) : People in Chris Gayle’s native in Kingston call him Legend. Others prefer to call him Da Boss. The man himself used to go by World Boss, which has since been upgraded to Universe Boss. This is the life of Chris Gayle.
As a sports enthusiast I decide to visit the place where he lives. It’s in a place called Chancery Hall on top of the Red Hills. Like everywhere else in Jamaica, the road leading up from New Kingston to Chancery Hall is ridden with potholes and not wide enough for two cars. But as you drive up Red Hills, the ride is less bumpy, the air cooler and there is lush greenery all around.
My taxi driver Bobby (his nickname too is Gayle) who I have been travelling with ever since I landed in Jamaica stops the car right in front of House Number 8 at the Victory Avenue. For a moment I was left dumbstruck to see the palace where he stays in.
A nine-bedroom mansion with a personal cinema and multiple swimming pools, a host of staff to care for him and his home and cash to splash on cars and bling, thanks to an estimated yearly income of $10.7 million.
I tried ringing the bell but get no response from inside. The big maan is busy playing the CPL matches in USA.
“When he’s here, you can see Chris come up to the big balcony on the first floor overlooking Kingston. And he’ll stand there in nothing but a towel and look down like a king surveying his kingdom,” says one of his neighbours from the next mansion.
Growing up in the crime-infested ghettos of East Kingston, where it would take nothing for a young boy to be sucked into drugs and gang wars. The skinny boy from Rollington Town, who stayed in a one room shanty with six other siblings is now Da Boss of Kingston and lives life king-size.
Chancery Hall is as upscale as it gets in Jamaica. A plot of land here doesn’t come cheaper than $ 2 million. While Gayle pockets around $5,60,000 a year from his IPL contract with Royal Challengers Bangalore, he earns double that from his plethora of sponsors, not to forget his contracts with other T20 franchises around the world. What was originally a single-storey house has, over the years, turned into a massive castle, with nine bedrooms, four garages, a state-of-the-art theatre, a pool room, swimming pools and lots of other glitzy niceties.
In a land obsessed with sprint stars like Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell — he’s made a name for himself. He is not only successful as a cricketer but is also being regarded as an icon. Gayle is not the first cricketing legend that Jamaica has produced. There have been others like George Headley, Michael Holding and Courtney Walsh, who if anything achieved greater highs on the cricket field. But none of them came close to the adulation and fanfare that Gayle attracts in every corner of the cricket world — as much for his cricket as for his persona, as much for his free-spirited batting as the Gangnam-style celebrations on the field.
Regarded as the best big hitter in the shortest form of cricket, Gayle flits from one T20 tournament to the next, with lucrative contracts in India, Bangladesh and Australia.
Then there’s his playboy antics. He owns the Triple Century Bar in Kingston, named to honour his two Test triple-hundreds, and he has converted a room at his palace into a “strip club” complete with a dancing pole and a bed with ceiling mirrors.
He’s a guy that polarises opinions — and it isn’t just about the way he treats women. In Kingston Gayle is looked upon as a larger-than-life figure, who lives life in his own way.