Bizarre scenes as umpire bars Gayle from batting

Fourth umpire Ian Gould had to stop superstar batsman Chris Gayle walking out to bat in the West Indies' World Twenty20 victory over Sri Lanka.

Amid chants of "we want Gayle" at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore - Gayle's home ground in the Indian Premier League - Gould comically dragged the T20 specialist back up the tunnel as he tried to enter the field.

Having tweaked his hamstring while fielding during Sri Lanka's innings, Gayle didn't open the batting for the Windies.

Standing in for Gayle, Andre Fletcher blasted 84 off 64 balls to guide the Calypso Kings to a seven-wicket victory.

Chants only got louder after the first Windies wicket fell and Gayle still didn't walk out to bat, but he padded up and was ready to walk out when wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin was dismissed in the 13th over.

But boos rang out around the ground when Gayle was held back by fourth umpire Ian Gould.

And rightly so. Gayle hadn't been off the field during the second innings for as long as he had been in the first, a prerequisite for any player who wants to return to the action after going off earlier in the match.