He was always obsessed with hitting boundaries as he didn’t fancy running

I understand the kind of shock and awe that Chris generates through his batting exploits among the cricketing fraternity,but I’m not too surprised to see him come close to scoring a 200 in a T20 match. I have had the benefit of playing with Chris for many years now,from U-19 level and having had the privilege of opening the innings with him from grade cricket right up to international cricket. But one match I’ll never forget is a T20 trial for the Jamaica team back in 2006,where he smashed 196 off 68 deliveries and got out in the 15th over. It was on a first-class ground,Chedwin Park in St Catherine,Spanish Town and against an attack that consisted of Jerome Taylor,Marlon Samuels and Nikita Miller,all of whom had already played for West Indies. I was thankfully in Chris’s team. And man,did he smash the leather off the cricket ball that day.

He’s got the power,the talent,the composure and great belief in himself along with great hand-eye co-ordination. We Jamaicans always knew about his ability to tear quality attacks to shreds. That he’s turning it into his own legacy is great news for West Indies and world cricket.

He’s always been an attacking player. But at the U-19 level,he was more focused on occupying the crease and taking time to get himself accustomed to the pitch and the conditions. As he grew older,he became stronger and has eventually turned into this destructive run-machine. Even though he was a steady batsman in junior cricket,you saw moments of explosion from Chris.

I remember him scoring a spate of centuries back then,for Jamaica,his school and his club. At that time,he was normally hitting the ball straight down the ground,and wasn’t really the six-hitter you see these days. He liked to place the ball along the ground,but always hit it with force.

He was desperate to create his mark on international cricket,and once he realized the demands at this level,he consciously started working on his fitness,lifted more weights,and built up his strength and stamina. He has always been obsessed with hitting boundaries,because he doesn’t really fancy running between the wickets. So he realized that he had to get more powerful to be a consistent boundary-hitter.

He had a great ODI series in India back in 2002. He had,however,shown signs of his new-found belligerence a year earlier in a Test match against South Africa at the Kensington Oval. He had struggled in the first innings,and the commentators had said he wasn’t fit for Test cricket. He was said to have feet of concrete. And then he came out in the second innings and hit 11 boundaries in a 39-ball 48 off Allan Donald and Jacques Kallis and the experts kind of shut up.

He is no technician and never will be a connoisseur’s delight. But in addition to great eyesight,Chris has developed his game in such a way that he knows exactly the position he needs to get in to score runs of any kind of delivery.

Overall,he hasn’t changed completely as a batsman from how he was back in the U-19 days. He still likes to spend a lot of time at the crease. I remember him scoring 95 against the Barbados U-19 team,and he took a hell lot of time to score those runs. But even now,he loves to occupy the crease for lengthy periods. Only that he’ll create more mayhem whenever he hangs around.

I believe he really came of age and showed signs of what was to come while scoring his maiden Test double-ton against New Zealand in Grenada in 2002. A couple of years later,he scored a triple-ton against South Africa at Antigua. And in the ODI series that followed,he scored a blistering 132 in a match we lost by one run in Barbados. Now I can say that those were his first steps towards becoming the ultimate destroyer.

We always complemented each other during our playing days. There was a time during our junior days,where one of us used to attack and the other would play anchor. But with time,I took over the anchor role for good.

He loves hitting sixes,more so because he can entertain people that way. That’s all he cares about mainly,apart from his cricket. To keep everyone around him happy. But he’s also the consummate professional. In the Jamaica dressing-room from the U-19 days,he was always the clown. The comedian,who would be cracking jokes and messing around with everyone.

Chris is a simple man who doesn’t take himself too seriously,loves to go around the world and bring joy into people’s lives. He also fancies himself as a fashion guru,a dancer,a football player,a singer and even a sprinter. For me though,Chris Gayle will always be a terrific cricketer,who hits a long ball and hits it very,very hard.

(Wavell Hinds played 30 Tests and 102 ODIs alongside Chris Gayle,opening the innings in most of those matches. In later years,he’s also become a guide and mentor to his fellow Jamaican. He spoke to Bharat Sundaresan.)