Chris Gayle fined for asking weak, pathetic woman out on a date
Jamaican Chris Gayle plays cricket. He’s pretty good at it. He’s a big wham-bam thank you, ma’am sort of player. He attempts to obliterate the ball in the Big Bash T20. During a match in Hobart, Tasmania, on Monday, Gayle asked sports reporter Mel McLaughlin out. That he did this during a live interview shows us that Gayle is brave. But, then, he is man who wears brightly coloured pyjamas to work. He is always bed ready.
“To see your eyes for the first time is nice. Hopefully we can win this game and we can have a drink afterwards. Don’t blush, baby,” said Chris. McLaughlin moved on. Gayle tried again. The interview ended.
Poor Chris struck out. He did not – ouch! – bowl the maiden over.
Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland was aghast. He said Gayle’s actions were a form of harassment. Stuart Coventry, chief executive of Gayle’s team the Melbourne Renegades, called the player’s words “completely inappropriate and disrespectful”.
Oh, gawd. ‘Inappropriate’ is the dread word of our age. It smacks of prudes and censors. We are living the Mary Whitehouse experience. Purse your lips. Breathe in. Never exhale.
Gayle was fined AU$10,000. The cash will be donated to a breast-cancer charity – why?. McLaughlin’s bosses at Network Ten say Gayle will no longer be given an on-field microphone or helmet-cam during live broadcasts.
Gayle says it was all a “joke”, a form of “entertainment”.
You might laugh at this. “What really disappoints me,” says Fox Sports journalist Neroli Meadows, “is the fact that people still laugh and the fact that when somebody like myself or Mel says it’s not okay… It happens, situations likes that, 10 times a day when you’re a female in this sports industry and that’s just a fact.”
She called it “the sports industry”. We’ve heard enough from her.
Over to McLaughlin, then, who says she feels “nothing but respect” for Gayle. Yeah, she took it in her stride. She did not cry foul. It turns out that – get this – an adult woman can take being asked out by a cricketer on the telly and not call in lawyers and therapists.
Who knew?
Posted: 5th, January 2016 | In: Sports Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
