Christopher (Chris) Henry Gayle (born September 21, 1979 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a West Indiancricketer. He is a left-handed batsman who can bowl right-arm off spin when called upon.
Gayle played for the West Indies at youth international level after he made his first-class debut aged 19 for Jamaica. He played his first one-day international 11 months later, and his first Test match 6 months after that.
Gayle, who normally opens the innings when he plays for the West Indies, is a destructive batsman who is most effective playing square of the wicket. In July 2001, Gayle (175), together with Darren Ganga (89) established the record for opening partnerships at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo when they put on 214 together against Zimbabwe.
However, generally speaking he had a slow start to his international career, but invigorated it in 2002, ending the year with three centuries against India in November and becoming the fourth West Indian to score 1,000 runs in a calendar year.
In 2005 Gayle was involved in the dispute between the West Indies Cricket Board and a number of players over sponsorship issues. These players had personal sponsorship deals with Cable and Wireless, who used to sponsor West Indian cricket. However, the West Indies are now sponsored by C&W’s rivals Digicell and the WICB demanded the players dropped C&W. After one Test match where all the players were dropped, Gayle cut his C&W deal and rejoined the Test side for the second Test against South Africa.
However, he had a poor series until the fourth Test, where he made his career-best: a match-saving 317.
