Chris Gayle warmed up, so to speak, for the West Indies’ opening match in the World T20 at a Mumbai disco in the company of Bollywood starlet Sneha Ullal. He was there for the launch of the latest single of close pal, teammate and emerging rap artist Dwayne Bravo.
Photos appeared on Instagram and in Indian papers. Ullal described Gayle as ‘such a cool person’ after they ‘danced and chatted’.
A couple of days later the muscular left-hander had switched venues from the disco to the middle of the nearby Wankhede Stadium where he belted his T20 International record 11 sixes in an even, unbeaten 100 off 48 balls, steering the West Indies to the winning target of 183 for four with 11 balls to spare over England. “Aggressive as usual,” Ullal tweeted.
Gayle’s similar exploits over several seasons in the IPL rendered it virtually routine for the thousands packed into the stands. His unbeaten 175 off 66 balls for the Bangalore Royal Challengers against Pune in April, 2013, remains the highest score in the game’s shortest format, the 17 strikes into the crowd the most sixes.
It is not recorded whether he prepared for that performance with a night out; it would be surprising if he didn’t. His trait of mixing the Caribbean partiality for a good time off the field with performance on it is common to several of his contemporaries and, as was evident in the