West Indies’ swashbuckler Chris Gayle has decided to pull out of the 2020 edition of Caribbean Premier League (CPL) citing personal reasons. Gayle was slated to don the jersey of St. Lucia Zouks this season as their marquee player.
A few weeks back Gayle hogged the headlines for his altercation with Ramnaresh Sarwan and former CPL franchise Jamaica Tallawahs.
Reportedly, his future with the franchise also remains doubtful, although no affirmative decision has taken place on Gayle by the Zouks.
The Zouks bagged the services of the brawny Jamaican for a whopping amount of USD 13000-16000, as their marquee player.
Gayle was in the limelight for his bitter fallout with the Tallawahs and then making a move to the St. Lucia based franchise. Apparently, Gayle was undermined by his former West Indies teammate, Sarwan, who was also the assistant coach of the Tallawahs.
Gayle had even launched scathing remarks on franchises’ chief executive Jeff Miller and Krish Persaud, lambasting them for ‘playing a game’.
The highest run-scorer in the world in T20 cricket was at the cusp of getting penalised by the CPL committee for bringing disrepute to the league’s brand. However, the committee decided to pardon the legendary batsman post after his apologetic public issue.
In his statement, Gayle said that his dire wish was to hang up boots in front of his home crowd at Sabina Park at Jamaica, where he won two CPL titles with the Tallawahs.
Further, Gayle is the top-scorer in CPL history with 534 runs to his name. Moreover, his form has been patchy off-late, with only 243 runs in 10 innings in the 2019 edition.
The CPL is set to be held in Trinidad & Tobago from August 18 to September 10, provided the government gives the nod ahead to the tournament.
