Cricket superstar Chris Gayle’s boorish comments towards TV reporter Mel McLaughlin Monday have drawn ire from the media and the public alike, with some pointing out this is no one-off for female sports journalists.
The incident occurred when Gayle had just finished batting for Big Bash League cricket team, the Melbourne Renegades, in Hobart. He was interviewed by McLaughlin about his performance, but proceeded to ask her out for a drink, telling her “don’t blush baby.”
A visibly shocked McLaughlin responded with “I’m not blushing,” and continued the interview to the sound of chuckling from the commentary box.
Following public condemnation, Gayle appeared at a 95-second press conference at Melbourne Airport Tuesday. It was all “a simple joke” that was “blown out of proportion,” he said, adding that he was “sorry” for any offence caused. In other words, not that sorry.
In the aftermath, female sports journalists across Australia have detailed Gayle’s history of inappropriate behaviour towards women who were just doing their job, as well as the everyday sexism they must deal with at work.
Neroli Meadows from Fox Sports spoke on ABC Grandstand Tuesday, with a passionate explanation about why we can’t brush off such comments as “a simple joke” or even an one-off indiscretion by Gayle.
Gayle had previously made inappropriate comments to Meadows at a press conference around five or six years ago, she told ABC Grandstand. “[Gayle] went at me once in the press conference. OK, fine, whatever, you’re having a laugh, you’re Chris Gayle, everyone laughs.
“It’s not ok, and then to come up afterwards, stand over me: ‘So when are we going for this drink.’ It makes you — he’s a big guy, it makes you feel intimidated, and it’s just not ok,” Meadows said.
“He’s a creep. He has creepy behaviour, and the way he did it to Mel was just that,” Meadows said. “What really disappoints me is the fact that people still laugh, and the fact that when somebody like myself or Mel say it’s not OK, people say ‘oh it’s free speech, oh it’s a bit of fun, oh don’t take it so seriously’ — it happens 10 times a day when you’re a female in this sports industry, and that’s just a fact.”
“We do not need this to happen to us in our workplace,” she went on. “Mel has been doing her job for 10 to 15 years with respect. Her career now gets defined by this.”
Melinda Farrell of ESPN CricInfo, also speaking on ABC Grandstand, revealed she too had the same experience with Gayle. Farrell also explained how female sports reporters tend to keep quiet about such issues: “It’s so normal that you don’t say anything, because if you did, you’d be jumping up and down all the time.
“We probably accept things that we shouldn’t because nobody wants to be that girl … You just want to get on with your job. That is what you are there to do and you want to be judged on your work.”
Shortly following the comments Gayle made to McLaughlin Monday night, Fleta Page from the Canberra Times tweeted about her previous encounter with Gayle.
I was sent to interview Chris Gayle a couple of years ago. He said no to the interview before hitting on me. Dickhead is his default mode.
— Fleta Page (@FletaTheTweeter) January 4, 2016
Page wrote about the experience for Fairfax Media Tuesday, detailing Gayle’s comments about getting a drink and a chat with him “without a notepad and a recorder” after declining her interview.
She said she had been pleased with the speed with which Cricket Australia and Network Ten condemned Gayle, but said she couldn’t say the same for social media: “The readiness of people — and it wasn’t just the anonymous egg accounts hurling insults at me — to behave more atrociously than the people they’re defending suggests we still have a long way to go.”
It’s not hard to find more examples of Gayle’s boorish behaviour, including this interaction from the Antigua Observer and uploaded by BuzzFeed’s Mark Di Stefano:
There’s probably little hope Gayle’s behaviour will change, but the belief that women should get over and laugh off what is fundamentally an uncomfortable, unwanted sexual advance at work certainly can.
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