Chris Gayle slams World T20 match fees for the West Indian cricketers as "joke"

Chris Gayle with the ICC World T20 trophy in the West Indian dressing room

The West Indian cricket team registered their second ICC World T20 triumph last Sunday since the inception of the tournament back in 2007. The Caribbean side defeated its English counterpart by 4 wickets to the clinch the coveted trophy at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

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During the prize distribution ceremony after the big match last weekend, an emotional Darren Sammy confounded the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) for disrespecting the ‘Men in Maroon’.

“I really want to thank the heads of CARICOM. Throughout this tournament, they have been supporting the team. We've got emails, we've got phone calls. Prime Minister (Keith) Mitchell (of Grenada)... He sent a very inspiring email for the team this morning. And I'm yet to hear from our own cricket board. That is very disappointing,” the West Indian skipper told Nasser Hussain.

The explosive West Indian opening batsman, Chris Gayle has wholeheartedly agreed with his captain, Darren Sammy as he has called for the West Indies Player's Association (WIPA) to be “shaken up”.

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The 36-year-old left-handed opening batsman uploaded a picture on Instagram last Tuesday with its captain describing the West Indian match fees at the ICC T20 World Cup 2016 as a “joke”. Gayle later added that he was going to donate his entire match fee to the charity.

The caption of his Instagram post read, “Big up double #WT20 #Champion captain @darrensammy88 - I support and backed him a 100% with his speech, well said about WICB, WIPA needs to be shaken up as well! The struggle is real. Sammy retired from Test cricket but I haven't.”

“However, I'm not eligible for selection for Test and ODI, think we played our last game for West Indies 2016-Hopefully 2017 the W.I fans can see us again. Thank god for the prize money because the match fee is a joke what WIPA agreed to...so I'm donating my match fees to Charity! #PayMe #Champion”

Gayle is set to start for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the ninth edition of the Indian Premier League that is set to start from 9 April 2016.

The Bengaluru-based franchise will be playing their opening match against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on 12 April, 8 pm onwards.

Here is the Instagram post by Chris Gayle that has recently made the headlines: