Chairman of Cricket Council USA (CCUSA) Mahammad Qureshi has joined the chorus of praises for T20 legends Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo both of whom retired from international cricket Saturday as the West Indies bombed out of the International Cricket Council (ICC) World T20 at Abu Dhabi.
Bravo played at the US Open T20 tournament a couple years ago for the US All Stars and took them to the finals with a brilliant performance in the semis. He and his brother Darren Bravo chased down a victory target of 140 in just seven overs. Gayle on the other hand played a major role in the Atlanta Param Veers winning the 2020 tournament.
Qureshi gifted Gayle a parcel of land in Orlando for being the best batsman in the tournament. Speaking on the duo’s retirement yesterday Qureshi said: “I want to congratulate the two players on brilliant careers for the West Indies. They are legends of this tournament and we are happy that both of them will still make themselves available to play at our US Open T20 tournament in the future.
“The two players have impressive international T20 records that will stay for a very long time. Gayle has scored 22 hundreds and Bravo has taken over 500 wickets. It was sad that they could not help their team progress to the semi-finals on this occasion but it takes nothing away from their greatness. The two players will continue to be etched in the memory of cricket fans around the world.”
Qureshi who runs the successful US Open T20 tournament in Florida says he with the extra time on their hands now he plans to utilise the players to assist cricket in America by playing in the US Open T20. “Look at Bravo, he came to play at the US Open and saw Ali Khan bowling and was able to pick him to play in CPL. Ali has become his own star and this was because of Bravo spotting him at the US Open T20 tournament.
“There is a lot that the two legends can do to help cricket in America and we plan to get them involve because when they play they assist our locally grown players in terms of imparting valuable experience.”
