Christopher Henry “Chris” Gayle was born September 21, 1979, in Kingston, Jamaica. He started his cricket career at Lucas Cricket Club in Kingston and has moved on since then to cement his place not only in Jamaica and West Indies cricket history books but also in the annals of world cricket.

His exploits on the cricket pitch make opposition bowlers fear and tremble akin to the Israelites army facing the Philistine warrior, Goliath of Gath, in Biblical times.

Granted, Gayle standing at 6 ft 3ins (1.91m), and weighing 216 lbs (98kg) pales in comparison to the weight and height of the champion of the Philistines, back then, but notwithstanding, his batting power and size, is intimidating to any team.

His savage and destructive batting prowess especially in the T20 and ODI format of the game has not only send spectators wild but also create fans and command the attention of non-cricket enthusiasts.

His impeccable timing of the ball and great eyes and hands coordination make him unstoppable and a batsman that cannot be trifled with by bowlers, if done, it’s to their own peril.

This dreadlocks, bandana wearing, bearded and devastated West Indies opening batsman has taken the fineness and grace out of the game, created his own approach and stamped his class through share brute force in smashing, blasting, and bludgeoning the ball to all parts of any ground.

His batting savagery has been experienced and felt by most cricket teams around the world but none as telling and brutal as his recent rampage against Pune Warriors in an IPL game.

In that game, he scored 175 not out off 65 balls and reached a century in 30 balls thus setting the record for the fastest century reached in any format of the game, the highest individual score in a T20 match, and the most sixes scored in a single innings in the IPL.

His personal fact sheet outlined below is a testimony and demonstration of the man’s quality performance and output.

• He is among the few West Indian players to have scored more than 6000 runs in Test cricket.

• He is the fourth highest run getter for West Indies in ODIs.

• Gayle holds the record for most number of centuries for a West Indian in ODIs.

• He became the first West Indian to score more than 7000 runs and take more than 150 wickets in ODIs.

• Gayle also became the first player to score a triple century against South Africa.

• He has the unique distinction of scoring a 100 in all three formats of the game.

• Gayle is the first player to have scored a century on T20 WC debut.

On the BBC Sports website his personal statistics is even more telling:

175 not out − Highest Twenty20 score – a record
17 − Most sixes in a T20 innings – a record
11 − T20 hundreds – a record
363 − T20 sixes – a record
46.33 − T20 average (137 matches)
163.33 − IPL strike rate
733 − Runs in 2012 IPL, a competition record
8,442 − One-day international runs
333 − Highest Test score
89 − Test sixes (4th in all-time list
In the social media, he has provoked discussions among the chattering class for example, on Facebook, people are figuring out different ways on how to get his wicket:

Never give him room, don’t bowl short unless you are express pace

You just need an international quality bowler for Chris Gayle

…right arm spin does work against him

A left arm quick with the ability to swing it both ways could do the trick

Some time ago in a series against SL, Vaas completely bamboozle Chris.

According to one of the posters on Caribbean Cricket.com − two good ‘quicks’ and a spinner and a plan and he is dead.

The quest by any team is to get him out before he starts blowing – Gaylestorm! ∅

Yvad Billings, Readers Bureau, Fellow