Windies’ flamboyant cricketer Chris Gayle is one of the most fearsome batsmen of his era. He holds a plethora of records in international cricket, is self-proclaimed as the ‘Universe Boss’. The opener is arguably the best batsman in the shortest format of the game when it comes to the statistics point of view. Recently, the ‘Universe Boss’ revealed the names of the cricketers he grew up watching.

It is hard to believe that the cricketer who Chris Gayle grew up watching never really played international cricket. Gayle, who is currently in Zimbabwe playing for Windies in the ICC World Cup Qualifiers, remarked that he lived near a cricket club in his childhood days. His elder brother, Vanclive Parris, played youth cricket for Jamaica.

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Also, he often visited the club to watch the players play in the local fixtures. At the club, Chris closely followed and got inspired by Delroy Morgan, who was a Jamaican opening batsman who scored 2878 runs in his career spanning from 1986 to 2000. Gayle went on to quote that he often missed school to watch him play.

Talking about the same, Gayle said, “I grew up with a lot of cricket happening around me in my city. I lived next to Lucas Cricket Club and I used to go and score the board and watch my older brother at that time. There were these two opening batsmen.”

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He further added, “One of whom was Delroy Morgan, who played first-class cricket but unfortunately never eventually went on to represent the country. So, I used to watch those two as a youngster, and then obviously as you get older you start watching international cricket. But it was them who got me started.”

Commenting further on a similar tone, Chris Gayle revealed that his family always inspired him to play cricket. His family wanted him to pursue a career in the sport. He said, “My family inspired me to become a cricketer, to be honest. They all played cricket, so that kick-started my career.”