West Indies players' struggle is 'real', our match fee is 'joke': Chris Gayle

Bengaluru, April 5: Explosive opening batsman Chris Gayle today (April 5) came out in support of his captian Darren Sammy and described the West Indies' players struggle as "real".

World T20 Special Site; Read Sammy's speech

On Sunday (April 3), West Indies defeated England by 4 wickets in a sensational last-over finish where Carlos Brathwaite smashed 4 sixes in a row off Ben Stokes for victory at Kolkata's Eden Gardens. (WT20 photos)

Sammy (left) and his team-mates celebrate in Kokata after winning the World T20 title. Gayle is on the right

After the historic title triumph, Sammy, in an emotional speech, blasted the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) for not respecting the Caribbean players. West Indies is the only team to win World T20 twice (2012 and 2016).

"I really want to thank the heads of CARICOM, throughout this tournament they have been supporting the team, we've got emails, we've got phone calls, Prime Minister (Keith) Mitchell [from Grenada]. He sent a very inspiring email for the team this morning ... and I'm yet to hear from our own cricket board. That is very disappointing," Sammy had said.

On Tuesday, Gayle, who was part of the World T20 winning team, called for West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) to be "shaken up".

The left-handed opener described their match fees as "joke" and added he was donating the money to charity.

"Big up double #WT20 #Champion captain @darrensammy88 - I support and backed him a 100% with his speech, well said about WICB, WIPA needs to be shaken up as well! The struggle is real. Sammy retired from Test cricket but I haven't.

"However, I'm not eligible for selection for Test and ODI, think we played our last game for West Indies 2016-Hopefully 2017 the W.I fans can see us again. Thank god for the prize money because the match fee is a joke what WIPA agreed to...so I'm donating my match fees to Charity! #PayMe #Champion," Gayle wrote on his Instagram account (chrisgayle333).

<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-version="6" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:8px;"> <div style=" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:62.5% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"> <div style=" background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAAGFBMVEUiIiI9PT0eHh4gIB4hIBkcHBwcHBwcHBydr+JQAAAACHRSTlMABA4YHyQsM5jtaMwAAADfSURBVDjL7ZVBEgMhCAQBAf//42xcNbpAqakcM0ftUmFAAIBE81IqBJdS3lS6zs3bIpB9WED3YYXFPmHRfT8sgyrCP1x8uEUxLMzNWElFOYCV6mHWWwMzdPEKHlhLw7NWJqkHc4uIZphavDzA2JPzUDsBZziNae2S6owH8xPmX8G7zzgKEOPUoYHvGz1TBCxMkd3kwNVbU0gKHkx+iZILf77IofhrY1nYFnB/lQPb79drWOyJVa/DAvg9B/rLB4cC+Nqgdz/TvBbBnr6GBReqn/nRmDgaQEej7WhonozjF+Y2I/fZou/qAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BDz26LsoeQC/" rel="nofollow" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">Big up double #WT20 #Champion captain @darrensammy88 - I support and backed him a 100% with his speech, well said about WICB, WIPA needs to be shaken up as well! The struggle is real. Sammy retired from Test cricket but I haven't. However, I'm not eligible for selection for Test and ODI, think we played our last game for West Indies 2016-Hopefully 2017 the W.I fans can see us again. Thank god for the prize money because the match fee is a joke what WIPA agreed to...so I'm donating my match fees to Charity! #PayMe #Champion 👊🏿</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A photo posted by KingGayle 👑 (@chrisgayle333) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2016-04-05T07:31:30+00:00">Apr 5, 2016 at 12:31am PDT</time></p></div></blockquote> <script async defer src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script>

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Story first published: Thursday, August 3, 2017, 7:30 [IST]

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West Indies players' struggle is 'real', our match fee is 'joke': Chris Gayle