Melbourne Renegades not willing to re-sign Chris Gayle

Big Bash League (BBL) franchise Melbourne Renegades’ chief executive Stuart Coventry has confirmed they will not re-sign flamboyant West Indian opener Chris Gayle for next summer’s tournament. The news comes just a couple of days after Gayle fired at his criticisers.

The problem doesn’t end here for Gayle as there is also a possibility of censure from his English county club Somerset when he arrives in the UK following his latest controversial remarks to a female journalist in that country.

The Jamaican, who is currently playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL, recently invited controversy during an interview. Gayle told the female journalist he has “a very, very big bat, the biggest in the wooooorld,” adding: “You think you could lift it? You’d need two hands.”

This incident happened just five months after the Jamaican had courted a big controversy during his infamous sideline interview with Australian reporter Mel McLaughlin during last season’s BBL.
“We’ll unveil our international signings soon and Chris isn’t part of those plans,” Coventry was quoted as saying by News Corp on Tuesday, reports Cricket Australia’s website.

Former cricketers Chris Rogers, Ian Chappell and Andrew Flintoff have earned the West Indian’s scorn. The trio has expressed their discomfort over Gayle’s comments to McLaughlin last summer and Gayle has hit back in his book. Gayle was later made to apologise to McLaughlin.

Rogers told earlier in January that he was concerned about the influence the West Indian might have on youngsters when they played together at the Sydney Thunder. But Gayle hit back to claim Rogers was his partner in crime at the Sydney nightspots.

“Chris Rogers, how can you claim that when it was you and me at the bar most nights?” Gayle was quoted as saying by The Times, London, on Monday.

“I’m not a snitch, but I’ve heard from your own mouth what you’ve done. Next time you want to open your mouth, maybe chew on a carrot instead,” he added.

Gayle also said, “you would have to ban cricket itself” if the International Cricket Council (ICC) followed through on Chappell’s requests to have him removed from the sport.

“Ian Chappell, a man who was once convicted of unlawful assault in the West Indies for punching a cricket official. Ian Chappell, how can you ban the Universe Boss? You’d have to ban cricket itself,” Gayle said.

Flintoff tweeted after the infamous “don’t blush baby” remarks to say that Gayle had “made himself look a bit of a chop there” to draw Gayle’s ire.

“This coming from a man who admitted he (Flintoff) took Viagra during a Test match. The only chop Freddie knows is when he used to bowl short to me and I would chop him past backward point for four,” Gayle said.