"Great to catch up with my good friend" - Vijay Mallya shares picture with Chris Gayle
Former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) owner and controversial businessman Vijay Mallya has shared a picture with West Indies legend Chris Gayle on his official Twitter handle. The former Windies captain represented RCB from 2011 to 2017.
Sharing a post on social media, Mallya described Gayle’s purchase by the Bangalore franchise as the “best acquisition of a player ever”.
The caption of the post featuring Mallya and the Windies cricketer read:
“Great to catch up with my good friend Christopher Henry Gayle @henrygayle, the Universe Boss. Super friendship since I recruited him for RCB. Best acquisition of a player ever.”
Great to catch up with my good friend Christopher Henry Gayle @henrygayle , the Universe Boss. Super friendship since I recruited him for RCB. Best acquisition of a player ever. https://t.co/X5Ny9d6n6t
Gayle enjoyed some memorable moments during his stint with RCB in the IPL. During the 2013 edition, he clobbered an unbeaten 175 off 66 balls against the Pune Warriors in Bengaluru. The incredible knock, which featured 13 fours and an unbelievable 17 sixes, remains a record for the highest individual score in the Indian T20 league.
The 42-year-old also holds the IPL record for most sixes (357), most centuries (six) and fastest hundred (30 balls).
“Didn’t get the respect I deserved”: Chris Gayle on opting out of IPL 2022
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instagram.com/p/CfEn7diqEVA/…It was great meeting British Prime Minister Boris Johnson & Cabinet Minister Nigel Adams promoting sports tourism for Jamaica 🇯🇲 🇬🇧
@borisjohnsonuk @nigeladams66 🙏🏿 😊 instagram.com/p/CfEn7diqEVA/…
Despite being one of the biggest names in the Indian T20 league, Gayle opted out of IPL 2022, claiming that he wasn’t treated properly in recent years despite his achievements.
Representing the Punjab Kings (PBKS), the left-hander played 10 games in IPL 2021, scoring 193 runs at a strike rate of 125.32. In the previous season, he scored 288 runs in seven matches at a strike rate of 137.14.
On his decision not to be a part of IPL 2022, the West Indies legend was quoted as saying by mirror.co.uk:
“For the last couple of years, the way the IPL went about, I felt like I wasn’t treated properly. “So I thought ‘okay, you (Gayle) didn’t get the respect you deserved after you did so much for the sport and IPL’.
"So I said ‘okay, that’s it, I’m not going to bother to enter the draft’, so I left it as it is. There is always going to be life after cricket so I’m just trying to adapt to normality.”
Overall, the southpaw has featured in 142 IPL matches in which he has scored 4965 runs at a strike rate of 148.96.
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