GAMBHIR AND KOHLI SPAT REVIVES FIERY MEMORIES OF IPL!

With temperatures soaring across the country, the start of May has been more than mercurial in IPL — 2023. The Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore had an intense first exchange at the Chinnaswamy, Bangalore, where Lucknow came out on top with a last ball win. The victory was celebrated with a lot of passion by the players and their coach, Gautam Gambhir. The gestures didn’t go down well with the always-passionate Virat Kohli who made sure to “give it back” after Bangalore won the second match between the two teams at the Lucknow Ekana stadium a few days ago!

The result was that the tempers flared up after the match followed by a heated altercation between ex-Indian opener, Gautam Gambhir and current Superstar, Virat Kohli. The angry duo were in such a rage that they had to be separated by fellow players. IPL authorities fined both Kohli and Gambhir 100 percent of their match fees as they were found to have breached article 2.21 of the tournament’s code of conduct and brought the game into disrepute. Lucknow bowler Naveenul-Haq also had an exchange of words with Kohli during the game and was fined 50 percent of his match fee.

Later, in the dressing room, Kohli was seen celebrating the close victory with his team mates, in a video released by his franchise on social media. He can be heard saying, “that’s a sweet win boys. A sweet win. If you can give it, you got to take it. Otherwise, don’t give it” — a direct retort to Gambhir’s aggression in the previous game.

Such fiery scenarios are an integral part of sport and IPL is the biggest money spinner in cricket with increased stakes for everyone, especially the players. The heightened passion sometimes results in ugly fights on field and there are plenty of previous examples of that in the 15-year IPL history. In fact, the Delhi duo of Kohli and Gambhir were involved in a similar tussle earlier in 2013. They were both captains of their respective franchises and Gambhir at the time was leading the Kolkata Knight Riders.

ABOUT 2013
In the 2013 fracas, Bangalore was chasing and Kohli was at the crease when he got out against the run of play. As he was about to leave the ground, he saw some nasty words being thrown at him from the opposition bowler. Not one to back out of any challenge, Kohli strode towards the Kolkata player when Gambhir came face to face with him and they had a severe verbal clash and could be separated only through the intervention of the Kolkata players. Both players were eventually fined 10 percent of the match fees.

ABOUT 2008
Earlier, in the inaugural IPL season in 2008, two stars of the Indian team, Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth were involved in a ‘slapgate’ incident. Mumbai Indians had lost the match against Kings XI Punjab by a huge margin and according to reports, Harbhajan, playing for Mumbai was so irritated with Sreesanth’s antics, the leading bowler for the Punjab side, that he slapped him. Thereafter, the images of Sreesanth crying went viral and the fiasco resulted in Harbhajan being banned from the rest of the season. But later, Harbhajan confirmed that they had resolved the issue between them after he apologised to Sreesanth.

One of the most dramatic visuals of IPL that still keeps getting replayed on social media is of West Indian star Keiron Pollard throwing his bat at Aussie pacer Mitchell Starc in the 2014 edition of IPL. After Starc playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore bowled a bouncer to Mumbai Indians’ Pollard, there was an angry verbal exchange. On the next ball, as Starc ran in, Pollard backed off but Starc went ahead with the delivery. This enraged Pollard to such an extent that he threw his bat at him and Chris Gayle had to step in to cool things down.

As the dramatic flare-ups in IPL reflect, Sports brings the best and worst of human emotions which makes fans connect more strongly as the adrenaline rush heightens contests. The central protagonists of the IPL clash this season — Kohli and Gambhir — have between them seen the other end of the sports saga when they shared a deep, friendly bond.

ABOUT 2009
In 2009, Gambhir even gave away his Man of the Match award to Kohli after his maiden 100 for Team India. Fans and lovers of the game hope that the duo will rekindle their early warm relationship and work together to help Indian cricket climb greater heights!

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

SIDDHAARTH MAHAN The writer is a specialist on Sports and Cinema who works as an actor in the Hindi film industry