Australian players celebrate their win during their match against the West Indies. It's at this match that a journalist allegedly watched porn while writing his report. Photo / Getty Images
Australian players celebrate their win during their match against the West Indies. It's at this match that a journalist allegedly watched porn while writing his report. Photo / Getty Images
• Sports editor says fellow journalist watched porn at MCG • Writer only stopped after official stepped in • More female reporters come forward with horror encounters with Gayle • Cricketer allegedly exposed himself to female staffer • READ MORE Television reporter accepts Chris Gayle's apology
Cricketer Chris Gayle's sexist and inappropriate interview with a female reporter has lifted the lid on an all-too common "bloke" culture in sport that objectifies women.
As more women came forward to reveal their own horror encounters with Gayle following his offensive comments to Australian journalist Mel McLaughlin on live TV, a prominent Australian sports writer said that the cricketer was just the tip of the iceberg.
Jackson said that the unnamed "accredited member of the media" shocked colleagues at the match as he switched between his match report and the "constant stream of hardcore pornography".
The reporter only stopped when an MCG official stepped in and asked him to stop.
"The thing that initially staggered me was the sheer audacity of it, that the presence of both female and male colleagues, who were sitting metres away with clear views of his screen, hadn't been enough to deter him and that he felt perfectly comfortable doing it in full view," wrote Jackson.
"Eventually, as the second day of this bizarre routine kicked off, this fervent porn consumer had to be awkwardly approached and told by an administrator of reasonable authority that not only could those female and male colleagues see what he was doing but that they'd appreciate it if he stopped. He did, admirably restraining himself for the rest of the day.
"I mention this admittedly extreme but also entirely truthful account of the scenario primarily to set a scene - one, in my experience, that plays out in any number of workplaces where men still outnumber women. It's a scene of male entitlement and arrested development.
"And here's the thing; the situation above, as it was unfolding, did also prompt chuckles from both women and men present, but once they subsided, mostly it just made people feel uncomfortable. In many workplaces, just as in life itself, women are made to feel uncomfortable every single day."
Jackson's blog will strike a chord with many sports journalists.
Australian media outlets are reporting other females have experienced similar behaviour from Gayle with one labelling him a "creep".
Accusations have emerged that Gayle exposed his genitals to a female staff member who was with the West Indies team during last year's Cricket World Cup.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the woman went inside the dressing room to get a sandwich when she thought all the players were on the field, only to find Gayle and another player standing there in towels.
Gayle reportedly pulled the towel down, exposing himself, and said: "Are you looking for this?"
Another reporter, Fox News 500 reporter Neroli Meadows, has detailed her own cringe-worthy experiences at the hands of Gayle.
Meadows, speaking on ABC Grandstand radio, was emphatic in her condemnation of Gayle's behaviour towards McLaughlin, describing him as a "creep".
"He's done it to me, he's done it to several women," Meadows said. "He does this constantly. He is a creep, he has creepy behaviour.
Gayle was made to apologise at a hastily arranged press conference upon Melbourne Renegades' arrival home from their trip to Hobart, but just hours later he took to social media to make light of his A$10,000 (NZ$10,670) fine.
The West Indian posted a picture of himself and teammate Dwayne Bravo in which he was wearing a T-shirt with a modified Playboy bunny design and the logo $EXSELL$.
It followed a post saying: "Pockets are empty so djbravo47 paying the dinner bill tonight ... Let's roll DJ."
Meadows said what really disappoints her is that people still laugh at Gayle's behaviour.
"The fact that people still laugh and the fact that when somebody like myself or Mel says it's not OK, people say 'ah it's free speech, it's a bit of fun, don't take it so seriously'.
She said Gayle did the same thing he did to McLaughlin to her five or six years ago when he first joined the Thunder.
"It was an entirely filled press conference because it was big news in Sydney, and the entire squad was in the back of that press conference. He went at me once in the press conference and I thought, 'OK you're having a laugh, you're Chris Gayle, everyone laughs'.
"He did it again. It's cringey, you can almost hear the cringing. It's not OK.
"And then to come up afterwards, stand over me and say, 'so when are we going for that drink'. He's a big guy, it makes you feel intimidated."
Cricinfo reporter Melinda Farrell concurred that she had received the same treatment from Gayle at press conferences, and both women spoke of the impact Monday night's interview had on them personally.
"I didn't sleep last night, I got a couple of hours sleep because it really got me riled up," Meadows said.
"Perhaps for one second, just trust us, rather than saying what a bunch of whingeing women, just trust us that maybe we're telling the truth and maybe it is upsetting and it does happen all the time and it's not OK.
"It happens - situations like that - ten times a day when you're a female in the sports industry and that's just a fact.
"Whether it's the fact the women's toilets aren't open and the men's toilets are, whether it's somebody saying something inappropriate to you as you walk down the halfway. We do not need that to happen to us in our workplace."
Also taking part in the discussion was recently retired Test opener Chris Rogers, who played alongside Gayle for Sydney Thunder.
Rogers clearly had to choose his words carefully as he is set to once again be a teammate of Gayle at English county Somerset this year, but Rogers was still swift in his condemnation of Gayle's behaviour - both now and when he was at the Thunder.
"From my time at the Thunder I was very disappointed with his attitude and his behaviour and I've never been a fan since," Rogers said.
"This is a pattern of behaviour. If you know the guy, you see it over and over. It's not just him, there's a lot of this stuff in the sporting industry. To defend it I think is not right at all.
"From what I saw at the Thunder, if I had to be in the Thunder the next year, it would have been my advice that he wouldn't have been anywhere near the set-up.
"The reason he hasn't played in the BBL for quite a while is because that was what was said. 'Actually, stay away from Chris Gayle because he brings more trouble than he's worth'."
- news.com.au with additional reporting from NZ Herald
