Chris Gayle living it up down under

Monish Moorthy 13 Dec 2012

The coolest man in international cricket is in Australia to do what he does best: smash a ball to all corners of the ground in a Twenty20 tournament, the Big Bash League in this case.

Chris Gayle will play his first game of the season for Sydney Thunder against the Melbourne Renegades who will be playing legendary off spinner and Gayle’s teammate at the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Muttiah Muralitharan

Here are some excerpts from Gayle’s interview with Perth Now, you can find the original here.

On falling to no. 2 in the international T20 batting rankings:

"I don't mind the title of being the best Twenty20 player. I play T20 around the world, I think I've dominated all around the world, getting a few hundreds. It's one of those things you have to accept.”

"In the internationals it doesn't show I'm the No.1 T20 player because you have Brendon McCullum, who has done well in internationals the last few months. He's a very dangerous player."

Gayle also mentioned David Warner, Shane Watson and Virender Sehwag as some other devastating T20 batsmen in the game.

On his recent poor run in Bangladesh (5 ODIs, 1 T20I):

"I look at it like the ol' saying, 'What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas' -- what happens in Bangladesh, stays in Bangladesh,"

"I'm definitely due. It wasn't the best series, but those things happen. It's cricket. You have your ups and downs, and you need to rebound as quickly as possible. This is the perfect opportunity to do it. Hopefully I can contribute and play some exciting cricket."

His team Sydney Thunder finished last in 2011-12 and lost by 7 wickets in their opening game this year, a game for which Chris Gayle was unavailable. Chris Gayle on his responsibilities for Sydney Thunder:

"I'm the big name in the team, and being the big name I need to make sure I'm doing my part and performing as well as possible," Gayle said.

"(Last year) most of the guys lost form leading into the Big Bash.

"It was the first time being around a new franchise and there were a couple of new players as well. Hopefully this time around things can be different, everybody can be more relaxed and express themselves freely and enjoy the game."