Chris Gayle sexism row: Darren Sammy defends player, says he is a 'target to sell newspapers'

West Indies Twenty20 skipper Darren Sammy has defended fellow team-mate Chris Gayle over accusations of sexism, saying that people "target Chris (Gayle) to sell newspapers". Gayle was in the headlines recently when in an interview with The Times magazine, he made a number of lewd and sexist comments, boasting that he had "the biggest bat in the world" and asking the interviewer ''how many black men she had slept with".

Speaking to the Independent, Sammy, who captained West Indies to their second T20 World title in April, believed that Gayle has become an easy target for headline writers.

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"Chris Gayle is an entertainer. Too much is expected of him. He's my team-mate and I have a lot of respect for him. Chris Gayle is just a target to sell newspapers, especially now."

This is not the first time Gayle has made such comments. He was involved in a sexism row earlier this year after asking Australian broadcaster Mel McLaughin out for a date in a live television interview during the 2016 Big Bash league. His behaviour led to widespread criticism from both present and former players, who asked for the West Indian to be banned from participating in the competition.

"You have people coming to him and asking him those sort of questions knowing what the answer will be. Cricket needs people like him, that's why he is the World Boss, sorry, the Universe Boss! He's an entertainer."

"A lot of us see the outside of Chris Gayle and don't know the man himself. You need to take the time to discover the history of where he has come from, where most of our cricketers in the Caribbean have come from. They've come from nothing."

The big hitting West Indian is currently playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise in the ongoing 2016 edition of the Indian Premier League and will be seen in action in the final on 29 May at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.