I believed I had heard the end of this Chris Gayle fiasco; now, not only has the man been forced to pay a fine for his actions, there’s even talk of racial prejudice.

Following a recent match the Jamaican Twenty20 cricketer, understandably oozing with testosterone hence inordinate self-belief coupled with a whole lot of arrogance, Mr Gayle was recorded making flirtatious remarks towards the reporter attempting to conduct a post-match interview with him.

That he was immediately accused of sexism struck me as peculiar; I perceived the incident as no different to an attempt from any other conceited man to court an unknown woman – in fact I found it terribly reminiscent of an inebriated male picking up a drunken female at a Christchurch nightclub; Gayle did everything right – he was brazen, she was caught off-guard; he was utterly full of himself, she was swooning; he was svelte, confident and even a little crude – yet apparently what he did was wrong.

Now the question is being asked: Was the backlash against Chris Gayle stronger because it was a Black man propositioning a White woman? …

My God media are dicks: that is the most asinine question anybody could ever ask and yes, only our beloved world media could be responsible for entertaining such a fatuous notion.

…Clearly they are trying to escalate the story, to make the issue bigger than it already is but honestly, a renowned sportsman hit on an attractive television reporter and is now being labelled a misogynistic lecher, how much bigger – how much more ridiculous – can the situation become?

No, the only reason that Chris Gayle’s spontaneous attempt at seduction of Mel McLaughlin is such big news is because he did it under the world spotlight, directly under the frowning eye of international prudes, where although at the time Miss McLaughlin appeared flustered, I reckon that once the cameras were off…

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Wendy Gale

Photography by Cass O Nova