Chris Gayle

Cricketer, West Indies

Born: 21th September 1979, Kingston, Jamaica

When one works in advertising, as a part of the job, one sometimes gets the chance to meet people who feature in ads and sponsorship schemes. "Celebrities" we call them. My friend Somanna, who works with Opus CDM in Bangalore is one such lucky dude! His client Seiko is one of the Indian Premier League (IPL) team sponsors. On a trip to Kolkata in Nov 2013, he met Chris Gayle.

"So many debates on who is the greatest cricketer. I met a few - Indian, Australian, West Indian and English cricket celebreties before. Chris Gayle is whom you should meet, once in a lifetime. Life changes after that. Perception and reality are different." says Somanna. Gayle gave him a small cricket bat, duly signed, as a memento. One day when I visited Somanna's office he remembered that he had it in his draw and took it out. "This is for you." he said. And this is now one of the prized items in my autograph collection.

Chris Gayle with my friend Somanna

5th Nov 2013, Taj Bengal Kolkata