Calcutta/Karachi: Chris Gayle is known for his party lifestyle off the cricket field, but the West Indian has gone to an entirely new level altogether by showing off the new "strip club" he installed inside his Jamaican home.
For years, Gayle and his West Indies teammates have loved showing off how to have a good time when they aren't out in the middle, often uploading pictures of themselves at nightclubs to social media and enjoying the company of each other. But Gayle's latest Instagram post could be his most outrageous.
The 35-year-old, whose Instagram biography describes him as "World Boss", uploaded a photo of a stripper pole in a room in his house for his 309,000 followers to see. The caption is Gayle at his party-boy best: "From the pool to the strip club...if u don't have a strip club at home, U ain't a cricket 'Player' ... I always make sure my guest well entertained and feel like they are at home #LifeIsForLiving#DreamBig," Gayle was quoted as saying.
The photo has received over 5,000 likes.
Minutes later, Gayle uploaded another Hugh Hefner-like photo of him lying on a bed with a mirror above him. He describes it as his "Hanky Panky" bed because he likes to see what is going on at all times.
"And this is the 'Hanky Panky' bed with the mirror above to watch whatever view of your choice," Gayle wrote in the photo caption. "It's feeling a bit dent at the moment lol some guest I presume had a ball in here.
"Ain't calling no names #FullJoyLife I can't wait for my friend to fly in for the Party. Anyway, y'all seen enough lol.. I need a beer so #TripleCentury it is tonight."
Meanwhile, Gayle has given his consent to participate in the Pakistan Super League scheduled to be held in Doha from February 4 to 24 next year, a top official of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said. Najam Sethi, who is heading the PSL secretariat in the Board, said that they were now in touch with the hard-hitting West Indian opener.
"We are in direct contact with him now after we spent lot of time trying to trace him and I am happy to report that he has consented to be part of the PSL," Sethi said.
Sethi, a former chairman of the PCB and head of the powerful executive committee in the Board, had last week signed on former Pakistan greats Wasim Akram and Ramiz Raja as brand ambassadors for the T20 league which is being hyped up by the PCB.
Gayle has figured in all the foreign T20 leagues including the Bangladesh Premier League and is a regular crowd puller in the IPL. According to Sethi, nearly 80 foreign players have signed consent forms to take part in the PSL and the process of short-listing the best available 20 to 25 players would be completed soon.
Besides Gayle, the PCB has targeted some other specialist T20 performers including Keiron Pollard, Sunil Narine and Dwayne Bravo. The Pakistan cricket authorities are employing the wait and watch policy with the Bangladesh Cricket Board as they would only allow its players to play in Bangladesh Premier League if BCB sends its women's team for the scheduled tour of Pakistan.
Reliable sources in the PCB said that the Board has yet not taken a policy decision on whether to allow its players to sign up for teams in the BPL. "The Board wants to see first whether the BCB sends its national women's team to Pakistan later this month or in October," a source said.
A high-level security delegation of the Bangladesh Board recently visited Karachi and Lahore to inspect the security and other arrangements for the planned tour by their women's team. It is yet to be confirmed if they have accepted invitation of the PCB to send their women's team.
Relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh boards have not been very cordial since the last three years, the origin of the dispute being the failure of the BCB to send its national team to Pakistan for a limited over series in 2012-13 when Zaka Ashraf was chairman of the PCB.
The PCB was aggrieved as the BCB refused to send its team on security grounds after a MoU was signed between the two boards under which Pakistan agreed to support the nomination of Mustafa Kamal for the ICC president's post in return for Bangladesh sending its team.<>
