Chris Gayle Announces Retirement From ODIs

Windies opener Chris Gayle will don the jersey of the national team in ODIs for one last time in the upcoming ICC World Cup 2019. The southpaw, on Monday announced his retirement from the ODIs, Windies Cricket confirmed through an official release.

“Talismanic WINDIES batsman, Chris Gayle, has announced he will retire from One-Day Internationals following the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 England & Wales,” read the statement from the cricket board.

The World Cup will get underway on May 30 with hosts England taking on South Africa in the series-opener. Windies, on the other hand, will open their campaign against Pakistan on May 31.

Gayle was recently recalled for the upcoming five-match series against England at home. The series will start on February 20 in Barbados and will be Windies’ last international assignment before the showpiece event in England. Prior to his latest recall, Gayle had last played for Windies during the series against Bangladesh at home in July last year. Prior to that, he had played in the World Cup qualifiers, helping Windies make it to the final and qualify for the main event.

Gayle had later made himself unavailable for the tours of India and Bangladesh in order to play the Afghanistan Premier League and the T10 League.

The last few years have seen Gayle making occasional appearances for Windies due to the differences with the board.   After playing in the 2015 World Cup,  he had made his comeback two years later during the tour of England in July 2017. Gayle had already brought down curtains on his List A career in October last year.  He had scored a century for Jamaica in his last game.

One of the few men to score a double century in ODIs, Gayle retires as one of Windies’ greatest batsmen. The left-handed batsman, who had helped his country win the Champions Trophy in 2004, is second highest run-scorer for Windies in ODIs. He, however, leads the list of most ODI tons for Windies. In 281 games, he has scored 9,672 runs with the help of 23 tons and 48 fifties.