Chris Gayle minced no words as he lashed out hard at a former teammate for his alleged part in Gayle’s ouster from Caribbean Premier League team Jamaica Tallawahs. He singled out Ramnaresh Sarwan for playing a “big part” in it.
In an outburst, released in a personal video on YouTube on Monday, Gayle also blamed Tallawahs’ chief executive officer Jeff Miller and owner Krish Persaud for “playing a game” with him and never keeping him in the loop about the team’s plans. In a frenetic last-minute development, Gayle was signed by St Lucia Zouks for the 2020 edition of CPL, scheduled for August-September. Zouks will be the third franchise Gayle will represent in the CPL after two stints with Tallawahs (2013-16 and 2019) and a two-year stay with St Kitts and Nevis (2016-17). Last season, Gayle had signed a three-year contract with Tallawahs, who had bought him as their marquee player at the 2019 draft. Gayle said he had always wanted to end his career in the “uniform” of Jamaica, his home team, but that dream now appears to be over, and Gayle laid the blame primarily on Sarwan, who he called various things, including “snake”, “vindictive”, “despicable”.
Alongside procuring Gayle, Tallawahs appointed Sarwan as the assistant coach last season. Gayle said Sarwan wanted to take over the head coach’s role from Donovan Miller, but the Jamaican was sure his former team-mate was not fit for the role. “Right now, Sarwan, you are worse than the coronavirus right now,” Gayle said in a scathing statement. He added, “Sarwan, you are a snake. You’re so vindictive, you are still immature, and you are still stabbing people in the back. When are you going to change, Sarwan? When are you planning to change?”
Gayle said Miller was in constant touch leading up to the retention date and even said the franchise was “struggling” financially. As a result, Gayle said he agreed to take a pay cut not once but twice, despite his contract saying he would need to be paid more every subsequent year. Gayle then heard from a third party that Tallawahs were going to release him.
