Chris Gayle: “It was a simple joke”

Chris Gayle has insisted that the comments he made towards female presenter Mel McLaughlin were “a simple joke”.

Speaking to McLaughlin after he had scored 41 runs off 15 balls for the Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League, the West Indian batsman asked her out for a drink and said “don’t blush, baby”.

His words caused outrage on the social networking site Twitter, but Gayle has since responded: “There wasn’t anything meant to be disrespectful or offensive to Mel.

If she felt that way, I’m really sorry for that. “There wasn’t any harm meant in that particular way, to harm any particular person in any particular way like that. It was a simple joke.

The game was going on. “Entertainment, things get out of proportion but these things happen. It wasn’t any harm done and like I said, I will leave it at that. I’m sorry for that.

We have to move on, simple.” The 36-year-old was fined around £5,000 for his remarks.