When Chris Gayle Spent time in Kingfisher Villa...
'If the ball's there, hit it. Don't worry about what might happen. Play for the glory. Play for the six’ - Chris Gayle The above lines gives a fair indication about the man who is known for playing some of
The above lines gives a fair indication about the man who is known for playing some of the most explosive and entertaining knocks in cricket. He holds the record of hitting a six off the first ball of a Test match, being the first man to smash an international T20 century, the first to hit a World Cup 200, the fastest century in the history of the game. Off the pitch he is even more flamboyant: he plays late, parties later, demolishes a king-size pile of pancakes and
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Present below are the excerpts from Chris Gayle Autobiography - "Six Machine: I Don't Like Cricket...I Love It". The excerpts capture the Gayle’s initial journey of IPL and how he got a chance to spent time at Vija Mallya’s bungalow - Kingfisher Villa. The excerpts will be a treat for Chris Gayle fans who wants to know more about the life of their favorite cricketer outside the game.
Indian Premier League was the moment when cricket changed forever, when the lifestyle of everyone who took part changed forever.
Doors opened up. Rewards came, at last, for many. Suddenly some were earning $1m for just over a month. Whoah! This is the new dawn. This is the new benchmark. And once I got to be part of it, having missed the first season through injury, it changed me and I changed it back.
It's big, it's big. It's like nothing else cricket has ever seen. Owners want the best players in their team, and if you're a star player you will be treated like a Bollywood hero. And that makes you want to deliver -to stand out by performing as well, to win titles, to live up to the expectations.
No more old India. Still the noise and the heat and the chaos, but now something impossible on top of it all. Still the stadiums jam-pack, but now the colour and contrast turned up again. Still the madness, but this time you're riding it, riding it. And that wave takes you to places, and those places take you to a whole new world . . .
I'm playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore , and we have a five-day break before our next match. What to do when you're footloose and fancy being free?
Team manager George Avinash strolls over with some chat. You heard of Goa?
You been to Goa? The boss has a place down there, the Kingfisher villa. He'd love you to go.
I'm having a few drinks with my teammates. There's AB de Villiers, Dan Vettori, Yuvraj Singh. Lots of talk, but you can tell there's some huffing and bluffing going on. 'Yeah, I'm definitely up for it, but I'll make a call in the morning.' Brunch the next day. 'Right guys, time to go.' And they back out. No one is going.
What to do? George pipes up again. 'Believe me, big man, you should definitely check it out.' Oh-kay . What could possibly go wrong? So I decide to go by myself. Fly down there, picked up in a sweet car and driven to Candolim, come down the driveway and whaaat?
Click Next to Know Chris Gayle's experience of Vijay Malliya's Villa
It's bigger than most hotels. It's cooler than any house I've ever seen.
It's James Bond , it's Playboy Mansion, it's the land of plenty in white concrete and glass. I'm trying not to stare, but there's so much to stare at that there's only room in my mind for one thought: 'Chris, this gonna be interesting...' I've got the entire villa for myself. I'm getting a tour. Wherever I go I've got two butlers walking with me at all times. Me alone, like a king! I go in the first pool. I go in the second pool. I walk the lawn, in my robe. I go back in the pool with a Kingfisher beer and then I stay in the pool and the Kingfisher beers keep coming, which makes sense because the one place they're not going to run out of Kingfisher beers is in the Kingfisher villa.
I take a golf cart and drive around. The cook wants to know what I'd like to eat.
'What are the options?' `Anything you want.' 'Yeah man, but what's on the menu?' `There is no menu, sir. You are the menu.' This is new for World Boss. Seems there is World Boss and Universe Boss. Whole new worlds. Bosses of things the boy from 1C St James Road, Rollington Town, didn't even know existed. No milk and Nutribun, although if you wanted milk and Nutribun they'd bring it to you.
Click Next to Know How Chris Gayle ride of three-wheeler, Harley-Davidson
Into the villa's private movie theatre. Into the garage, so many cars, a Mercedes so big I can't even work out what it is. But it's not the cars that catch my eye, it's this big bike, three-wheeler, Harley-Davidson. And I get the story about how Vijay Mallya got the bike.
He's driving through the States, and he sees a guy riding it. He tells the guy he wants the bike. And he's the boss, the Mallya Boss. What he wants, he gets. So he asks the guy how much it would take to sell it, literally climb off it right there and give it to him, and the guy names his price, and Mallya counts out the bills and buys it. Has it shipped back to India, and then down to Goa and the villa.
Also Check Excerpts from AB deVilliers Autobiography
So straight away I jump on this bike. I've never ridden a motorbike before. I've never seen a motorbike with three wheels. But one of the butlers shows me how to drive it, and I start riding it up and down the driveway, which because this is the Kingfisher villa is the size of a racetrack.
Brrrrm! I feel like the Terminator, screeching around with my shirt open and my shades down and nah, no helmet, because it's warm and it's a Harley and it's the Kingfisher villa and I'm the king of the villa, the Kingfisher king, and woohoo, who knew this thing could go that fast?
The butler signals. 'Does sir want to take it on the open road?' 'NO WAY!' 'Sir?' 'Nah! I ain't taking the chance. I'll just take it round the driveway one more time.' Pause.
'I will have a rum and Coke though, yeah? And the movie theatre -I can just pick any film I want, right?' Brrrrm! The butlers won't leave my side. I won't even finish my drink and the next one will be in my hand.
Every morning I wake up and they ask me what I'd like to do.
'Would sir like to ride an elephant?' 'You got an elephant here?' Now even Vijay Mallya doesn't own his own elephant.
But he's good friends with a man who does, so soon I'm riding an elephant, which has less of the speed of the Harley but all the same swagger.
I don't want to leave. I have to leave.
When I got back I told the guys all about it. Right after checking the tournament schedule for the next five-day gap.
The reaction: 'Oh shit . . .'
Excerpted with permission from Six Machine - I Don't Like Cricket ... I Love It, Penguin UK, Rs. 599
