Legendary India spinner Anil Kumble was left disappointed by Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir’s verbal spat during the IPL 2023 clash between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Monday (May 1).
Following the game, Gambhir was seen approaching Kohli aggressively with his players and the two had an animated chat. Before the matter could have gone out of hands, the two Delhiites were separated by the players and support staff members of both sides.
“Lot of emotion goes in (the game), but you don’t want to be displaying those emotions. Yes, you need to have a conversation, but this is something that is unaccepted. No matter what, you have to respect the opposition. You have to respect the game,” Kumble was quoted as saying.
“You may disagree on field, you may have a go at the opposition, you may say things on the field in the heat of the moment, but once the game is over, you just need to shake hands and doff your hat. Not to the player but to the game. Because that’s something you need to respect… I don’t know what was said. Some things may have been personal. That’s something you don’t want on the cricket field. Both with Virat, Gautam, and whoever was involved, it wasn’t the nicest thing to see,” he added.
Things did look ugly in the middle and Kohli and Gambhir were reprimanded by the match referee after the game. Both of them were fined 100% of their match fees for breaching the IPL’s Code of Conduct.
LSG pacer Naveen-ul-Haq was also fined 50 percent of his match fees for violating the IPL’s Code of Conduct. Naveen engaged in a war of words with Kohli during the 17th over of LSG’s chase. The on-field aggression then spilled over to the post-match handshakes as Naveen and Kohli had another heated exchange.
Former India batter Robin Uthappa was not happy with the ugly turn of events during the LSG-RCB clash as well.
“It’s unbecoming for the game. I also want to say if a bowler came up with those kinds of celebrations that we saw earlier today, they would be docked or reprimanded for it,” Uthappa said on air.
(India Today Inputs)
