West Indies Cricket Board President Julian Hunte has congratulated Chris Gayle on his historic innings of 333 against Sri Lanka recently.
In his letter to Gayle, Hunte said: “It fills me with pride to send you heartfelt congratulations on your historic innings of 333 against Sri Lanka at Galle.
“Congratulations firstly on achieving your highest individual score and one which propelled the West Indies to 580 allowing for a declaration.
“Your inning was an epic feat of aggressive resilience and I salute you on behalf of the West Indies Cricket Board and all the people of the Caribbean for whom you are a cricketing ambassador.
“As you know, not only is your score the highest by a West Indian against Sri Lanka and the highest by a West Indian in the subcontinent but it now holds the record for the highest individual score by a West Indian batsman outside the Caribbean, surpassing the great Sir Viv Richards’ 291 against England at the Oval in l976.”
Gayle etched his name into history when he became just the fourth batsman after Sir Donald Bradman, Brian Lara and Virendra Sehwag to make two 300-plus scores in Tests and celebrated by lying down on the pitch.
Gayle’s marathon innings consisted of 26 fours and eight sixes.
He bettered the highest score by a West Indian batsman in the subcontinent- Rohan Kanhai’s 256 in Kolkata – a record that had stood for 48 years. He also surpassed Pakistan’s Younis Khan 313 by any batsman against Sri Lanka as well as his previous best of 317.
However, rain ruined any hopes of a victory against Sri Lanka as the match ended in a draw.
