One of the biggest talking points of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season was the off-field clash between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batter Virat Kohli and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) mentor Gautam Gambhir. Both were fined 100 per cent of their match fees after their verbal spat.
In the game, Kohli was involved in a verbal dispute with Lucknow pacer Naveen-ul-Haq. Following RCB’s win in an emotionally-charged contest, the dispute got worsened further when Gambhir took Kyle Mayers away during his chat with Kohli. This led to both Kohli and Gambhir engaged in a heated argument. Soon, players from both sides including LSG skipper KL Rahul and RCB captain Faf du Pleassis had to intervene to seperate the two players .
However, weeks after the heated exchange, Gambhir has finally come forward to clarify the situation between him and Kohli. Talking about his verbal spat with the 34-year-old, Gambhir opined that there is nothing personal between the two, and all the heat stays on the ground.
“I have a lot of fights on the cricket field, I always keep them limited to the cricket field. A lot of people said a lot of things and demanded that I give interviews for TRP. There is no need for a flashback, it was an argument between two individuals that happened on the cricket field. If it had happened outside, you would have called it a fight, this was just two individuals who wanted to win for their team,” Gambhir said in an interview with News18 channel.
The former southpaw also spoke about having heated arguments on other occasions and taking a stand for his players.
“I will just say this and not elaborate much, and I will say what I did, which I will endorse as I did for a person who was completely right in that match. If I felt Naveen Ul-Haq did nothing wrong, it was my responsibility to stand with him. If my teammate is wrong, I will never stand with him,” Gambhir added.
Meanwhile, Kohli’s second-innings resilience in the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final went in vain as Pat Cummins led-Australia breached the Indian defence and sustained a memorable win. The tremendous victory of 209 runs helped Australia to clinch the prestigious trophy for the first time.
