'Not a pleasant sight' - Former KKR batter asks Indian Cricket Board to find root cause of Kohli-Gambhir verbal spat

Virat Kohli & Gautam Gambhir (Source: Twitter)

The "gentleman's game" endured an ugly verbal altercation on Monday, May 1 when Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) clashed in the Indian Premier League 2023 season at the Ekana Stadium. Rather than RCB's 18-run win in a low-scoring thriller, the heated exchange between the two 2011 World Cup winners dominated the headlines, and the duo received a lot of criticism from various quarters.

Reports revealed that the recent fight was due to Kohli's aggressive celebrations and abusive words during LSG's chase. Video clips showed LSG pacer Naveen-ul-Haq and Kohli initiating the proceedings, which intensified with Gambhir's involvement after the match. Meanwhile, Gambhir and Kohli are no strangers to on-field spats, as the two had a dispute during the 2013 season when the former was captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

The Indian Cricket Board docked Kohli and Gambhir's entire match fee for violating the IPL code of conduct, while Naveen was fined 50% of his match fee. Former Indian cricketers Sunil Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag, however, felt that it was insufficient and that the two Delhi players should have been suspended in order to avoid similar incidents in the future.

A lot of people watch IPL, especially youngsters: Manoj Tiwary

Manoj Tiwary, an Indian cricketer and politician, expressed similar views to Gavaskar and Sehwag, saying that the national governing body of cricket in India should step in and ensure that such occurrences do not occur again.

"Indian Cricket Board should step in. This is not a pleasant sight, especially when you are an ambassador of the game, you shouldn't do such things. IPL is one of the most popular tournaments in the world, a lot of people watch it, especially youngsters. A lot of young people want to become like Virat Kohli. So, it is important to find the root cause of clashes like these. Healthy competition is good for the sport but not incidents like these," the former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batter said on Cricbuzz.

The Bengal cricketer also pointed out that people will only remember Gambhir for his aggression and not for what he did for Team India in the 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2011 50-over World Cup.

"This cannot go on. These two are icons as I had said earlier. People mostly will remember Gambhir for his aggression, that will be the first thing that will come to their mind. They will forget that he has played a major role in India winning two World Cups. This should not happen. This is not the right example to set," he concluded.