Kolkata: Star West Indian opener Chris Gayle has been regarded as one of the best opener in T20 format. Due to his destructive batting he is also known as ‘Universal Boss’, but for some unknown reasons Gayle was almost out of the cash rich league as no franchise was showing their interest to buy the Jamaican maestro. Though just ahead of the end of player auction on day 2, Kings XI Punjab finally bought him on 2 crore rupees.
When the auctioneer Richard Madly announced that Chris Gayle was sold to the KXIP on 2 crore rupees which was also his base price all the franchise clapped their hands in joy. In his 9 years stint in IPL from 2009 to 2017, Gayle had played 101 matches where he scored 3626 runs with an average of 41.20, beside that the Jamaican giant has a humongous strike-rate of 151.20. In this period of time he hit 5 centuries and 21 half-centuries. Gayle had played a knock of 175 runs against Sahara Pune Warriors back in 2013 for Royal Challengers Bangalore which is the highest individual score in the history of IPL.
Not only in India, Gayle has also participated in various T20 leagues of other countries and he has a century in every league. Despite of having 20 centuries in this format the all the IPL franchises were not interested in buying Gayle for the upcoming season. On being asked about the matter, Wisden India’s Kaushik Krishnan said,” I don’t know why the franchises were less interested to buy him, but according to me they were concerned about his fitness and poor form. He is 38 years of age now and all the franchises are trying to look forward.”
Though star pacer of Bangladesh, Mashrafe Mortaza raised his voice in favour of Chris Gayle. Just a month ago Gayle played a blistering innings of 146 runs in just 69 deliveries for Rangpur Riders in Bangladesh Premier League.”I don’t know what the franchises were thinking during IPL players’ auction. If Gayle won’t get a chance in T20s, then who will?,” concluded Rangpur Riders skipper Mashrafe Mortaza.