Gayle's happy and it shows

Chris Gayle has been batting in the IPL matches like someone who has just had a great weight lifted off his shoulders writes Suresh Menon on dreamcricket.com. The supply lines in West Indies cricket are drying up, those with experience, including Gayle are being told by the Board they have no role to play, so it is not difficult to see why the laidback Jamaican is happy to exhibit his wares to an audience screaming for sixes in his adopted home town.

For good or bad, Gayle is showing the way for players of the future. By declining an annual contract from the West Indies Cricket Board, he has kept himself free to play where and when he wants to. Every six, every century increases his market value in the T20 format which is pegged to the here and now. And if there is nothing else to occupy him, he could always announce his availability for Test cricket.