RCB demand Gayle be allowed to open alone and bat from both ends

Admitting that Gayle was the difference between the thumping victory over Pune (23 April) and the disappointing loss to Mumbai (27 April), Royal Challengers Bangalore management has decided to use Gayle as much as possible. “Once Chris gets out, RCB switches from Australia mode to Zimbabwe mode”, Vijay Mallya said. “I have written to IPL Governing Council to allow Chris Gayle bat from both the ends when he comes out to open the innings for RCB.” [caption id=“attachment_738143” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  With Gayle batting from both ends, bowlers would have nowhere to hide. BCCI[/caption] Mallya explained the logic behind his demand. “Think about the guy who bats with Gayle. Except for the best view to enjoy Gayle-storm he doesn’t get anything else. Spectators don’t care who the guy is, and he is under pressure all the time to run a quick single and give the strike back to Gayle. So, even if he is capable of scoring a four or six by himself, he feels obliged to pass that honor to the big Jamaican.” Mallya fells such a situation incurs loss of few runs to the team along with creating a perceivable pay disparity. “If after getting the strike, Gayle can’t hit big, it’s a loss to the team, as the other guys just did ‘tick-tick’. It also looks odd that someone is paid just for ‘rotating the strike.” In his letter to IPL, Mallya suggested the implementation also. “We can have Gayle open the innings from both ends, and have a dummy guy at the other end for running between wickets, the chances of which are anyway very low.” Mallya clarified that it doesn’t mean that Chris has to get out twice to leave the ground. “Once he gets out from either end, two fresh batsmen will come to the middle and take the no two and three positions.” It’s a fair demand, feels Mallya. “If opposition finds any fault with this, they can deploy a few more fielders. Instead of 11 men patrolling the ground, they can have 15 while Gayle is batting." When asked whether it would make Gayle more vulnerable to getting out since he would be facing deliveries continuously, Mallya felt it was actually the other way. “His flow will not break if he is the only guy batting. He won’t have to wait for the strike, in case someone like Dilshan is not able to work the ball even for a single”, Mallya explained, “Chirs got 175 off 66 balls against Pune. Imagine if he had faced the other 54 deliveries also. He would have easily scored 300.” Mallya got irritated when asked whether Chris Gayle would get paid more money for doing this. “Don’t talk money. Our employees work for two things- their own passion, and their owner’s prestige. Don’t you know about the Kingfisher Airlines staff who kept on working passionately without any money until it became unbearable for them?” blasted Mallya, saying this is a personal matter between him and Gayle. This article has obviously been written tongue-firmly-in-cheek.