Dramatic confusion surrounding Chris Gayle’s sudden BPL exit

Many eyebrows were raised when Barisal Bulls didn’t field their marquee player Chris Gayle in the second qualifier of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) this year.

According to the Barisal team management, the reason for his exclusion was that he had raised concerns about his back pain on December 13. The Jamaican was making his comeback to cricket with the BPL after undergoing a back surgery earlier this year.

Bangladesh Cricket Board President Nazmul Hassan in a press conference informed that this particular issue surrounding Chris Gayle came under their scanner and investigations were on.

Hassan said, “One could hold suspicion about certain matches from the BPL’s first two seasons. But none of that caught our attention this time. Our local ACSU team, who worked during the BPL, didn’t inform us of anything, but it is a continuous process. At the same time, there is one issue which they are already working on. It is about Chris Gayle’s appearance in the semifinal. There is some discussion about it. We are looking into it. I am not saying there was anything untoward but we are investigating the matter.”

He refused to elaborate on the topic any further as he felt it would be inappropriate to do so without any official complaint.

Bulls’ co-owner Rizwan bin Farouk on the other hand, said that they couldn’t force anyone to play coming back from a surgery. He said, “If the player is injured, he can’t play. You can’t force him to play. He has had an operation. When he called the doctor, he was told to go back immediately.”

Gayle played four games this season in which he scored 139 runs including a match-winning innings of 92* against Chittagong Vikings on December 9. Surprisingly he was left out against Dhaka Dynamites on December 10.

BPL governing council chairman Afzalur Rahman Sinha in an interview said, “We have to examine if there was any other motive in this regard. We have to find out why Gayle wasn’t played. We will investigate the matter after the tournament. They could have let us know earlier. The BCB physio and doctors could have looked after the problem. But they didn’t tell us. We heard that he won’t be playing a little while before the match began, and that he will be leaving the country. If he had an injury, he wouldn’t be able to field the full game yesterday. It would have been revealed in the field.”

Although according to the BPL’s rules and playing regulations, the BCB and the BPL’s governing council and technical committee do not have the jurisdiction in the composition of a team’s playing XI, there has been no clarity on the exact reason for Gayle’s absence. Different personnel stated different reasons.

While Bulls’ captain Mahamudullah Riyad said at the toss that Gayle’s unavailability was due to his commitments to the Big Bash League in Australia, team manager Saidul Islam said, “He informed us this morning that he has back pain, which is why he can’t play today. Because he just returned from injury, we didn’t force him. Gayle wants to have treatment of his back pain in Australia.”

At the post-match conference, Sabbir Rahman said that the team had prior knowledge about the Jamaican’s unavailability. He said, “After our last match, we heard that Gayle wouldn’t be playing this game.”

Written by Jishnu Bhattacharyya