West Indies batting legend Chris Gayle has, over the years, bludgeoned innumerable bowling lineups in the IPL with utter disrespect. But it seems now that the feeling of irreverence was mutual, as the Universe Boss revealed in a recent interview that over the last few seasons, he hasn’t felt respected enough.
Chris Gayle didn’t even sign up for the 2022 mega auctions
The 42-year-old Gayle, leading up to this year’s IPL, opted against playing and even declined from putting his name into the mega auctions. While there wasn’t any official speculation from Gayle or any close representative, it appeared that he was just plain fatigued decided to take an indefinite break from the tournament.
Some further speculated that they had seen the last of Gayle in the IPL, leading to believe that he had taken a silent retirement from the biggest T20 tournament in the world. But all those guesses and assumptions got thrown out of the window a few hours back when Gayle gave an interview to Mirror.co.uk. As per Gayle, he felt that he wasn’t being treated properly over the last couple of IPL seasons, which was the major demotivation for him snubbing this year’s IPL.
‘Not got enough respect after doing so much for IPL and the sport’- Chris Gayle
“For the last couple of years, the way the IPL went about, I felt like I wasn’t treated properly,” Gayle was quoted as saying by Mirror. It’s worth noting that in the last season, Gayle opted to leave the Punjab Kings’ bio-bubble midway through the UAE-leg of the tournament citing bubble fatigue.
“So I thought ‘okay, you didn’t get the respect you deserved after you did so much for the sport and IPL.’ So I said ‘Okay, that’s it, I’m not going to bother to enter the draft,’ so I left it as it is. There is always going to life after cricket so I’m just trying to adapt to normality,” Gayle further added.
‘Next year I’m coming back, they need me!’
Despite his complaints about how he was being treated by the teams, Gayle hasn’t yet closed down his door on the IPL. He claimed that he has enjoyed his time spent with Punjab and Bangalore- two out of the three franchises with whom he has enjoyed a great deal of success- and suggested that he could be open to possibility of returning for those teams next year.
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“I’ve represented three teams in the IPL, Kolkata, RCB, and Punjab. Between RCB and Punjab, I would love to get a title, with one of those two teams. I had a great stint with RCB where I was more successful within the IPL, and Punjab, they’ve been good. I love to explore and I love challenges so let’s see what happens,” Gayle concluded.