Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir took to his Twitter handle to reply a journalist Rajat Sharma who commented on his verbal spat with Virat Kohli during the IPL 2023 match between Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday.
The controversy transpired when Rajat Sharma called Gambhir 'egoistic and arrogant' during a broadcast. While speaking about the fight between the two players, Rajat said, “After winning elections and becoming the member of Parliament, Gautam Gambhir’s ego has increased. His jealousy towards Virat Kohli’s fame could be seen clearly. Virat Kohli is someone who always remains aggressive and doesn’t tolerate any nonsense and hence, he gave a befitting reply to Gautam Gambhir. But overall, Gambhir’s behaviour was against sportsmanship and it doesn't suit a former player or a member of Parliament. Such incidents spoil the spirit of cricket and hence, this shouldn’t have happened.”
Gambhir in his reply wrote, “Man who ran away from Delhi Cricket citing “pressure” seems over-eager to sell paid PR as concern for cricket! यही कलयुग़ है जहां ‘भगोड़े’ अपनी ‘अदालत’ चलाते हैं।”
Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli were involved in a heated argument after the match between Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore ended. This is not the first time when Gambhir and Kohli were spotted having a verbal fight as they did the same in IPL 2023 and 2016 editions.
An eyewitness, who was in one of the team dug-outs, gave a lowdown of events to PTI.
"You saw on TV that Mayers and Virat were walking side by side for a few metres post-match. Mayers asked Kohli why was he constantly abusing them and Virat, in turn, questioned why was he (Mayers) 'staring' at him? Before that (Amit) Mishra had complained to umpire about Virat constantly abusing Naveen (ul-Haq), who is a No. 10 batter.
"Gautam, sensing that things could turn ugly, pulled Mayers and told him not to have a conversation, when Virat made a comment. The heated exchange that followed seemed a bit juvenile," he said.