Afghanistan fast bowler Naveen-ul-Haq was at the centre of an on-field heated verbal exchange between Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir at the Ekana Stadium on Monday night. The incident happened after the IPL 2023 match between Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Minutes after RCB registered an impressive 18-run win over LSG, Gambhir and Kohli were involved in an animated verbal exchange. However, that face off between the two former India teammates was reportedly an aftermath of the spat during the game between the former RCB captain and Naveen.
The BCCI later fined Kohli and Gambhir 100 per cent of their match fees while Naveen was also imposed a 50 per cent fine of his match fees. After this episode, an old tweet of Shahid Afridi post his spat with Naveen has gone viral on social media. Notably, the IPL wasn't the first time that Naveen has been involved in a fight on the cricket pitch. In 2020, the Afghanistan speedster had been at the centre of a spat with Mohammad Amir and later with Afridi. This was during the inaugural edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL).
Naveen played for the Kandy Tuskers in that edition of the T20 tournament but was caught abusing Amir during the match. Soon things turned ugly. After the match had ended and when the players had lined up for the customary handshake after the match, Afridi said something to Naveen which again seemed to have irked the Afghanistani pacer.
Off the field after the match had been done, Afridi took to Twitter to clarify what he had told the young pacer.
"My advise to the young player was simple, play the game and don't indulge in abusive talk. I have friends in Afghanistan team and we have very cordial relations. Respect for teammates and opponents is the basic spirit of the game," his tweet dated December 1, 2020 reads.
However, the 23-year-old did't hold back here either and responded to the tweet by saying: "Always ready to take advice and give respect,Cricket is a gentleman’s game but if someone says you all are under our feet and will stay their then he is not only talking about me but also talking abt my ppl. #give #respect #take #respect."