West Indies’ legend and widely popular as ‘Universe Boss’, Chris Gayle, has lashed out at his former teammate Ramnaresh Sarwan and termed him as a ‘snake’ and a ‘backstabber’ during a series of videos on YouTube.
Gayle has accused Sarwan of playing dirty politics behind the decision taken by Jamaica Tallawahs – a Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 franchise – of not retaining the left-handed batsman for the upcoming season.
On Tuesday, in the second of the three videos published on the “Chris Gayle – Universe” YouTube channel, Gayle accused that Sarwan, who happens to be the assistant coach of the Tallawahs, joined hands with the team management to plan his exit from the side.
Gayle was so angry that he even labelled Sarwan as someone worse than the current global disease Coronavirus.
“Sarwan, you are worse than the coronavirus right now. What transpired with the Tallahwahs, you had a big part to play. Sarwan, you were the one who gave a big speech at my birthday party about how far we have come. Sarwan, you are a snake. You know, you are not the most loved person in the Caribbean. You are so vindictive; you are still immature, you are back-stabbing,” Gayle said.
The Kingston-born cricketer had returned to the Tallawahs’ in 2019. Earlier in his first stint, Gayle led the side to title wins in 2013 and 2016, before moving to St Kitts and Nevis Patriots for a couple of years.
“When I left the Tallawahs [after the 2016 season], it was a high-spirited team. The amount of complaints I got when I wasn’t there, the amount of problems they had with Sarwan, [Andre] Russell was the captain at the time; the number of problems Sarwan and the captain have, keeping meetings behind the captain’s back and these sort of things. That’s the kind of person Sarwan is,” added Gayle.
Gayle also said that when he returned to the squad in 2019, Sarwan told him that he was going to be the head coach and Donovan Miller would become his assistant. However, Gayle expressed to Sarwan that the latter has no experience to become a coach.
“I told Sarwan directly that ‘Sarwan, you have no experience being a head coach. It is not an easy job.”
After the chat, when Miller was announced as the head coach and Gayle didn’t back Sarwan’s ambitions, the Guyanese assistant coach took this on his ego and started influencing foreign players to make fun of Gayle in front of junior lads.
“The amount of lies this guy told on the players. Sarwan wanted to put a curfew on the players when the games were 8 ‘o’clock at night…he wanted to know why there were so many Jamaicans on the team. You take it upon yourself and say too many Jamaicans on the team. Sarwan also influenced the overseas players to ‘make a mockery of him in front of the younger players’,” Gayle added further.
The attacking batsman further said that because he is the only active player since 1996, this hurts them and they can’t digest the fact of him is still playing the game.
“Out of that era – 1996 – I’m the only one active, playing. Everyone else retired. I’m the last man standing within that era…and I’m still going strong. So it kind of hurt them to see Chris Gayle still playing and still being successful. I’m talking about past and present players. But I’m dealing with you Sarwan. I’ll deal (with the others) whenever that time comes,” concluded the 40-year-old.
Now, after Tallawahs’ refusal, Gayle is supposed to play for St Lucia Zouks in CPL 2020.
