Srinagar: The India cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar has reacted to the Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir getting fined for their on field spat during IPL 2023 match between RCB and LSG recently.
Kohli was Gambhir were fined 100 percent of their match fee while as Afghanistan star Naveen ul Haq was fined 50 percent.
Kohli and Gambhir were involved in a heated argument, after Afghan pacer Naveen-ul-Haq got into an altercation with Kohli. The argument was so intense, that other players had to intervene.
“Well, I saw the visuals only a while ago, I did not see the match live yesterday. These things never look good. What is a 100 per cent match fee? What exactly is a 100 per cent match fee? If it is Kohli, who is on maybe ₹17 crore for RCB, which means ₹17 crore for a possible 16 matches, including the semi-finals, and finals. So you are talking about a crore of rupees. Is he going to be fined ₹1 crore and more? Well, that’s a very, very stiff fine,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
“I don’t know what Gambhir’s situation is. They should ensure that this is not repeated. You are hoping that this is not repeated because it’s such a stiff fine, such a stiff punishment. You want to play it hard, play it competitively. During the time that we played, there was a bit of banter, but there was none of this aggression that we see now. A lot of it has got to do with the fact that everything is on TV too. Because of the fact that you are on TV, you tend to do maybe just that little bit extra,” the legend added.
“So, my point, do something which will make sure, these things don’t happen again. If it has to you know, like it happened with Harbhajan and Sreesanth 10 years ago, that you have to ask them to maybe step aside for a couple of matches. Make sure you do something that ensures that these things don’t happen and also something that will hurt the team. That’s a stiff one,” explained Sunil Gavaskar.
