West Indies cricket star Chris Gayle has denied exposing his genitals to a massage therapist, telling a Sydney jury such conduct deserved to be punished.
Gayle's barrister, Bruce McClintock SC, on Monday said Fairfax Media had set out to "destroy" the cricket great in a "vicious, savage and false attack" published in three of its newspapers from January 2016.
In his opening address to the jury in the NSW Supreme Court, Mr McClintock said Gayle had taken defamation action against Fairfax "to prove to you and the whole world what the defendant said was false and was a lie".
Gayle is suing over articles which he says falsely claimed he intentionally exposed his genitals to a female massage therapist and indecently propositioned her in the West Indies dressing room in Sydney in 2015.
A jury of three women and one man was earlier empanelled for the trial with two men excused after telling Justice Lucy McCallum they were cricket fans and particularly liked Gayle.