Chris Gayle felt like he’d lost the support of West Indies cricket administrators and fans when he heard jokes doing the rounds on social media about a pending pension plan.
Scoring runs was the only way to regain full respect, and he did that in emphatic fashion with a World Cup-record innings of 215 in a 73-run win over Zimbabwe in a Pool B match on Tuesday.
West Indies captain Jason Holder had confidence the 35-year-old Jamaican would get back to his big-hitting best, but Gayle admitted he’d been upset when a senior West Indies Cricket Board official retweeted a spectator’s suggestion it was time for a “retirement package” after he was dismissed for 4 in the 150-run World Cup Pool B win over Pakistan on the weekend.
“With the tweet and everything, you’re disappointed to see who it actually came from,” Gayle said. “It was a time when you’re a player, you need support.”
Gayle, who hadn’t scored a one-day international century since mid-2013, took matters into his own hands.
His extraordinary 16 sixes in his 147-ball innings is a record for an ODI equalled only by South Africa captain AB de Villiers and India’s Rohit Sharma. Gayle’s first ODI double-century surpassed Gary Kirsten’s 188 at the 1996 tournament as the highest score ever at a World Cup. And his 372-run partnership — from 318 balls — with Marlon Samuels was a record in limited-overs internationals.
“To score a double century in an ODI, its right up there. It’s got to be the best feeling,” Gayle said. “I hope this is the start of a new beginning.”
The spell-bound crowd seemed oblivious to the light drizzling rain that made the daunting task for the Zimbabwe spin bowlers all the more difficult against Gayle.