GAYLE GETS BASHED FOR LIVE TV CHAT-UP GAFFE
CHRIS GAYLE has been slammed after asking a female journalist out for a drink during a live TV interview. The West Indian was being questioned by Channel 10 reporter Mel McLaughlin after his dismissal for Melbourne Renegades against Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash 20-over competition when he suggested they should go out at the end of the match. ‘I wanted to see your eyes for the first time, hopefully we can win this game and then we can have a drink after as well,’ he said. Gayle, 36, then added to McLaughlin: ‘Don’t blush, baby.’ Anthony Everard, the head of the Big Bash League (BBL), has told Gayle — effectively now a Twenty20 gun-for-hire — that there is no place for his comments. ‘I heard Chris’s comments and they’re disrespectful and simply inappropriate,’ Everard said in a statement. ‘We’ll certainly be talking to him and the Renegades about it. This league is all about its appeal to kids, families and females. ‘There’s just no place in the BBL — or, for that matter, cricket anywhere — for that sort of behaviour.’ Stuart Coventry, chief executive of the Renegades, added: ‘I heard Chris’s comments and we agree with both Cricket Australia and Channel 10 that they’re disrespectful and simply inappropriate. ‘We’ll certainly be talking to him in association with Cricket Australia.’ Gayle’s only comment was to retweet a post from broadcaster Piers Morgan, who wrote: ‘I’m absolutely outraged that everyone’s so absolutely outraged by @henrygayle being a bit cheeky to a female TV reporter.’