Gabriel sledge: Do you like boys?
West Indies fast bowler Shannon Gabriel asked England captain Joe Root: “Do you like boys?” during a heated confrontation in the third Test, and has issued a public apology for his remark.
Gabriel was banned for four oneday internationals and fined 75 per cent of his match fee after he accepted a charge of personal abuse. The bowler landed in trouble after stump microphones picked up Root saying: “Don’t use it as an insult. There is nothing wrong with being gay.”
Gabriel apologised to Root after the game, and issued a written statement yesterday, saying the exchange occurred during a “tense moment on the field”.
“To my team-mates and members of the England team, especially their captain Joe Root, I extend an unreserved apology for a comment which in the context of on-the-field rivalry, I assumed was inoffensive sporting banter.
“The pressure was on and Joe Root was looking at me intensely as I prepared to bowl, which may have been the usual psychological strategy with which all Test cricketers are familiar. I was attempting to break through my own tension when I said to Joe Root, ‘Why are you smiling? Do you like boys?’ His response, which was picked up by the microphone, was, ‘Don’t use it as an insult. There’s nothing wrong with being gay’. I then responded: ‘I have no issues with that, but you should stop smiling at me’.”
Gabriel was punished with three demerit points which took his total to eight, triggering the ban which rules him out of the first four matches of the one-day series that starts next week.
Gabriel had unsettled Root with the short ball throughout the series and the exchange happened when the England captain finally found some form. Gabriel had just had a catch dropped and was taking on a greater share of the bowling after an injury to Keemo Paul when he lost his temper.
Gabriel was suspended last year for shoulder-barging a Bangladesh batsman.