A tribute to Chris Gayle, the Universe Boss

The universe boss, the demolition man, the whirlwind and you can call out as many adjectives as you wish to describe Christopher Henry Gayle. However, nothing can be as thunderous as his batting in the middle. From his twin triple hundreds in Tests to 10,000 plus runs in T20 cricket, nothing in Gayle’s illustrious, controversial and flamboyant career is short of spectacular.

Such is the extraordinary impact of batsmen like Gayle on the crowd as well that even those people who seem disinterested in the game are glued to their seats and television sets. And why won’t they? There is always a sense of excitement and madness and aura of invincibility surrounding Gayle that makes his opponents shiver and his fans euphoric.

If you ever wonder which term can aptly narrate Chris Gayle’s personality? ‘Living the life king size’ it is. Two of the traits of Gayle that are indeed adorable are his carefree attitude and fearless mindset, exhibiting shades of great Sir Vivian Richards in the way this Calypso king approaches his game. Nothing seems to bog him down or hold him back as he goes about his business living each and every moment of life, approaching each ball he faces with a crystal clear opinion, to deposit the ball out of the stands.

For Gayle, life is like a big party, with each and every ground around the globe being his party location, putting on different jerseys he attends these parties and there is no wonder he turns out to be the wildest party animal, dominating and demoralizing the bowling attacks in most of the places he is.

Be his thunderous batting, unfussy bowling, lazy running between the wickets and also on the field, controversial arguments with the WICB, Gangnam style dancing, Gayle seems to have seen all, always being the thorough entertainment package, adding spice to life beyond cricket.

Throughout his long, eventful yet entertaining career, we hardly ever came across Gayle who had the word fear in his dictionary. Be his scintillating knock of unbeaten 133 in the semi-final against the Proteas in ICC Champions Trophy 2006 or the Gaylestorm that hit Australia so hard that it eventually knocked them out of the competition in the very first round itself in ICC World T20 2009, the man has always lived his life on an edge, riding his luck and more often than not coming out of it as ultimate victor.

Even in later stages of his career, whether he is playing for West Indies or playing around in global T20 leagues, marketing the game throughout the world, he has become much more fearless which makes him even more dangerous, especially, if you are up against him.

Just trusting the recent evidences of Gaylestorm that blew England apart, Gayle, practically has nothing to lose from here on or rather he never did and that makes him even an interesting prospect for the West Indies as they prepare to sprung a surprise at the World Cup as they always do, especially, at the world events.

In a way, Chris Gayle very much defines West Indies and their brand of cricket throughout the generations, being totally unpredictable, at times volatile, but on his day, there is no stopping him, totally engulfing the opposition like a hurricane and not just a storm.

424 runs, 39 colossal hits in just 4 ODIs at the age of 39 in a recently concluded series against England and with World Cup looming in just over two months from now, Chris Gayle looks to be in his zone, in complete command as he looks forward to bring down curtains on his ODI career, maybe international career too with a bang following the World Cup in UK.

Only time will tell if he walks into the sunset portraying a glamorous final landscape or if he is rather destined to bow out unceremoniously. However, one thing that can be rest assured of is the fact that his presence on those 22-yards would be dearly missed, leaving behind a suitcase of memories for his millions of fans to savour!