Comparing the two most thrilling athletes of our times and the joy we got from watching them. Ankit Banerjee tries to bring the two Jamaicans under the same roof.
Jamaica is as colourful as its flag and is famous for Bob Marley, exotic locations, reggae music, Christopher Henry Gayle and a certain Usain Bolt, who had the audacity to challenge a cheetah for a dash. We keep hearing about the term audacity and these two men surely embody that.
Apparently, towering Bolt is six foot five inches and the self proclaimed “World Boss” Gayle is just over six foot four, nothing much to choose between the two. The giant men are muscularly built and you can make out they are extremely strong. In fact, surprisingly the nicknames they have are pretty similar, in terms of adjectives, if one cautiously looks at it, for the former is often called ‘Thunder Bolt” or “Lightening Bolt”, the latter’s feats are often described as “Gayle force” or “Gayle storm.’ [Also Read: 10 videos that underlines Chris Gayle as the funniest man in international cricket]
The impact they have on the game is mind numbing and ‘never-seen before stuff’. Bolt is the fastest ever human to have been born on planet Earth and has breached the 10 seconds barrier to complete 100 meters and when it’s the game of cricket, one hasn’t seen somebody hitting towering sixes with utmost ease as Gayle. He makes it seem like just another day in the office for him. By far, he is the best batsman the format of Twenty20 has seen.
Before a dash, Bolt is seen lounging around the start up mark, five metres away from it with nonchalance only he can exhibit and you look at the remaining seven gearing up. They look tensed, some look excessively fired up and some just gape at the Jamaican monster. Gayle is not very different; he is as nonchalant as Bolt in his approach but when somebody reminds him of the run-rate, he launches the storm mode and at that moment fielders become non-existent and it seems the cricketing stock markets have suddenly crashed.
If Lightening Bolt is the current Olympic champion in three events where sped is the need of the hour- 100m, 200m and 4 x 100 mts relay. He is also the first human to win a staggering six Olympic gold medals in sprinting, and a whopping eleven-time World champion, then Gayle has two triple tons in Test cricket — a feat managed only three others and they are Don Bradman, Brian Lara and Virender Sehwag. Gayle has also smashed a 30-ball ton in a T20 match and is the first cricketer to score a double century in a World Cup match.
For Jamaicans, being raised in the lap of reggae music, are bound to be different in their style and approach. People from that part of the globe are usually laid back in their attitudes and never take issues at heart and sob over it instead they would love to soak all their issues in ‘Rum’ and flush it out of their anatomy. Speaking of drinks, Gayle is a character and loves to soak himself in that. He owns a sports bar and restaurant in Jamaica.
Bolt is famous for his ‘bow and arrow launch’ after a win; it is a hit among his fans, just like Gayle brought the ‘Gangnam-style’ in vogue. And all in all, both these great athletes are fans of each other.
The two have a lot of factors similar amongst them but the biggest aspect they bring to the fore is, ‘Keep it simple’! Many of us usually try to complicate things in our regular lives, eventually making a mountain out of a molehill, they are the characters who inspire and show the world, ‘the essence of living life.’
(A cricket geek to the tee, Ankit Banerjee smokes and snorts it all day long. The romance with the sport incepted since the 1996 World Cup semi-final. He is a winner of the 2011 edition of the All-India college cricket quiz.)
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