KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – West Indies legend Chris Gayle pulled no punches as he tore into former teammate Ramnaresh Sarwan in a three-part video on YouTube on Monday, blaming him for his fallout with the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) outfit Jamaica Tallawahs.
In a scathing attack on Sarwan, Gayle accused the Tallawahs’ 39-year-old assistant coach of being vindictive and also charged that management of the franchise was “playing games” with him before his departure.
“What transpired with the Tallahwahs, you had a big part to play in this,” the big hitter charged in part two of the ‘Breakdown of Release From Jamaica Tallawahs’ videos as he directed his comments to Sarwan. “You want the franchise, have it. There’s no Gayle. You run the show.”
Last week, St. Lucia Zouks announced the big hitter as a marquee player for the CPL – the start of which is still in the air because of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak – on the heels of him being released by the Tallawahs before the end of his three-year contract.
Gayle, 40, played his first four seasons of the T20 tournament with Tallawahs, which he led to the title in 2013 and 2016, before turning out for St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the 2017 and 2018 seasons. He returned to his home franchise in 2019 when the team finished bottom of the table.
Speaking publicly for the first time about parting ways with the Tallawahs, the leading run-scorer in T20I history said: “When I came back to the Tallawahs, Sarwan was assistant coach. Myself and Sarwan had a discussion; he wanted to be the head coach…. So, I’m talking to Sarwan and he was saying he is going to be the head coach and Donovan Miller gonna be the assistant coach. But I’m not going to beat around the bush or go behind him back…. I told Sarawn directly ‘you have no experience being a head coach, it’s not an easy job’. He said ‘ok, whatever you want, you’re the captain, no problem, we’ll leave it at that’.”
Gayle claimed that Sarwan was upset by his assessment and the fact Miller was selected head coach, and held that against him.
“Sarwan, you were the one, my last birthday party here in Jamaica, on the platform giving a big speech about how far we have come. Sarwan, you are a snake…You are so vindictive, you are still immature.… When are you going to change, Sarwan? When are you planning to change?” he charged.
The Jamaican also indicated that he had issues with the Guyanese cricketer from as far back as 1996, when they were youth cricketers.
“We shared the same room in the West Indian Under-19s. You allowed the management staff to send me home from Barbados. I will never forget that, you know. I forgive but I’ll never forget that,” he said. “You told the management team…that you can’t sleep [because] Chris Gayle was watching TV too late in the night. That’s what I got sent home for.”
In his rant, Gayle also claimed that people were jealous of him and his success.
“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,” he said.
The management of the Tallawahs did not escape Gayle’s ire, although he made it clear he had no problem with franchise owner Kris Persaud whom he described as a good man.
“No love lost, you still have my respect,” he said in a message to Persaud.
However, he was critical of CEO Jeff Miller.
Gayle claimed that before the March 31 retention submission deadline, he had a conversation with Miller who told him the franchise was struggling financially and asked him to take a pay cut, which he said he agreed to, although his contract stated that his pay would increase with each year.
Another request was subsequently made, the T20 specialist said, and he eventually agreed to an even lower fee.
However, Gayle said, there was a third request for him to go even lower, on the deadline date, which he refused, and after promising to get back to him, Miller submitted the team members to CPL officials without his name. He said he only knew about the omission because people at CPL called to ask him why they were not seeing his name.
“Jeff didn’t contact me to say ‘Chris, we’re not signing you’, or ‘we’re not retaining you’. He hasn’t come back to me to say anything,” Gayle charged.