King Gayle to retire after World Cup in England
West Indies opener Chris Gayle will bring his ODI career to an end at this year's Men's Cricket World Cup.
The 39-year-old is one of the last remaining international cricketers to have made his debut in the 90s, and has since gone onto become one of the West Indies' best ever ODI cricketers.
He sits behind only the legendary Brian Lara in terms of games played and matches scored, though with the possibility of 20 ODIs between now and his retirement, Gayle could yet surpass him on both counts - he has played 284 games to Lara's 299, and scored 9727 runs to Lara's 10,405.
Some records are his and his alone.
His 23 ODI centuries is more than any other West Indian, and he will always be the first male player to make a World Cup double century, which he did in the 2015 edition when he notched 215 against Zimbabwe. In the course of that performance, he and Marlon Samuels also broke the record of the highest ODI partnership, adding 372 for the second wicket.
That 215 also remains West Indies' only ODI double century.
Among his other accolades are captaining his country more than 50 times, representing the World XI, which he did thrice in 2005 against an Asia XI and Australia.
He also starred in the Windies' 2004 ICC Champions Trophy win, finishing fifth on the runscorers list.
Though these days he can usually be found stationed at slip, he was good enough as a bowler to take 165 ODI wickets, fifth on the list among West Indians, with a best haul of 5/46 against Australia in 2003.