S Sreesanth has levelled some serious allegations against Gautam Gambhir following their fiery exchange in the LLC Eliminator last evening.
Former India teammates Gautam Gambhir and S Sreesanth were involved in a heated exchange during the Legends League Cricket Eliminator between India Capitals and Gujarat Giants. In the second over of the Capitals innings, Gambhir smacked Sreesanth for a six and a four, but after the next ball was hit to the fielder for a dot, tempers flared between the two. At the end of the sixth over, Sreesanth and Gambhir had a go at each other verbally at the non-striker end, a development that made heads turn.
After the match, Sreesanth launched a long tirade at Gambhir, calling him ‘Mr. Fighter’ and accusing the former India opener of picking up fights for absolutely no reason. Although Sreesanth did not reveal the exact details of the ‘rude’ things Gambhir said to him, he did promise to disclose it in due time. The former India quick also pointed out that Gambhir’s actions were uncalled for and without any form of provocation from his end.
“Just wanted to clear the air with what happened with Mr. Fighter. One who always fights with all his colleagues. For no reason whatsoever. He does not even respect his senior players, including Viru bhai. That’s exactly what happened today. Without any provocation, he just kept on calling me something which was very rude which shouldn’t have been said by Mr. Gautam Gambhir,” Sreesanth said in a video posted on his Instagram handle.
While Sreesanth did not go into the details of Gambhir’s alleged verbal attacks, by the looks of it, it could have to do something with his involvement in the IPL spot fixing scandal from 2013. Why, you ask? Because Sreesanth indirectly recalled his ‘battle’ and mentioned terms like ‘people want to bring me down’.
“I am not at all at fault here. I just wanted to clear the air straightaway. What Mr. Gauti has done, sooner or later all of you will get to know. The words which he used and the things he said on a cricket field, live, is not acceptable. My family, my state, everybody has gone through so much. I fought that battle with all your support. Now people want to down me for no reason. He said things he shouldn’t have said. I will surely let you know what he said,” added Sreesanth.
Gambhir is no stranger to controversies. Earlier this year, he found himself embroiled in a heated altercation with Virat Kohli following Royal Challengers Bangalore’s victory over Lucknow Super Giants in an IPL match. The tension escalated from a confrontational handshake in the previous encounter to a full-blown on-field episode involving Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq, with Gambhir stepping into the fray.
Few months later, during the Asia Cup, Gambhir stirred controversy by responding to a section of the crowd chanting ‘Kohli.’ Although he later clarified that his reaction was aimed at countering anti-India slogans, skepticism lingers, casting doubt on the veracity of his explanation. To highlight the same, Sreesanth brought back the Kohli episode from the IPL to support his claims.
“What’s the point of representing people if you don’t respect your own colleagues? Even in broadcasting when he is asked about Virat, he never speaks about him. He speaks about something else. I don’t want to go further in detail. Just want to say I am very hurt and my family is hurt and my dear ones are hurt. And the way he said things… I haven’t used a single bad word or a single abuse. He just kept on saying words which he always does,” he mentioned.