Chris Gayle to play in CPL 2021

Universe Boss Chris Gayle will be back with the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in the 2021 edition of Hero Caribbean Premier League. He played for the Patriots in 2017 and 2018 before. Gayle guided the Patriots to their only Hero CPL final in his first year with the franchise.

After sitting out of CPL 2020 citing personal reasons, Chris Gayle is making a comeback in this year’s edition, with the T20 World Cup to follow after the tournament. The franchise made the announcement on their official Instagram channel.

With nearly 14000 T20 runs to his name, Chris Gayle is the highest run getter in T20 history. He also scored 22 centuries and 86 half centuries in this format – which is a record on its own. Gayle is also the only cricketer to score over 1000 fours and sixes in the format. He recorded 1073 fours and 1017 sixes to his name.

This is not the first time Gayle has decided to go back to a team that he previously represented. The T20 legend played four seasons for his home franchise Jamaica Tallawahs, winning two titles with them before jumping ship to St. Kitts & Nevis Patriots. After playing the 2017 and 2018 seasons with Patriots, Chris Gayle jumped ship back to Tallawahs in the 2019 edition.

Before the 2020 season, Gayle made an acrimonious exit from Tallawahs and publicly blamed head coach Ramnaresh Sarwan for it.

Chris Gayle’s acquisition comes as a much-needed boost to the Patriots, who managed just one win in 10 games to finish last in the 2020 edition. Incidentally, their best performance – a CPL final appearance – came when Gayle was part of their roster in 2017.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh allrounder Shakib Al Hasan has re-signed with the Jamaica Tallawahs for the forthcoming season and South Africa batsman Faf du Plessis signed with St Lucia Zouks. Zouks were the finalists in the 2020 edition of Hero CPL.

Gayle will head into the 2021 season second on the list of all-time highest run-getters in the tournament, with Lendl Simmons – who made 356 runs in Trinbago Knight Riders’ title winning campaign last year – ahead of the veteran by less than a hundred runs.

Gayle will be in company of his national opening partner Evin Lewis and all-rounder Dwayne Bravo. The trio were part of T20 World Cup triumph in the 2016 edition of ICC World T20.

St Kitts & Nevis Patriots Squad:

Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Fabian Allen, Sheldon Cottrell, Rayad Emrit, Jon Russ Jaggesar, Dominic Drakes, Jashua Da Silva, Sherfane Rutherford, Dwayne Bravo.