While a lot of former cricketers and experts criticised the on-field exchange between Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir, Graeme Swann has a different thought. He thinks that cricket would be dull without these on-field conflicts.
One of the biggest controversies of this IPL has been the heated exchange between Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir in the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants. That did not go well with many fans and experts, and they raised questions about spirit of the game.
However, former English cricketer Graeme Swann told PTI, “You should never try to dilute the players so much that they do not wear their hearts on their sleeves.” He added, “One of the reasons Virat Kohli is ‘Virat Kohli’ is because he’s so passionate about his cricket. He’s so in your face when he’s playing and he intimidates a lot of players. Some may think he’s going too far. They are massive personalities, who grew up and played together.”
The cricketer-turned-commentator also said that Gambhir is not the one to back away. “Gautam is never going to back down to Virat. If it spills over off the field and there’s swearing stuff, then that’s wrong. As long as there are handshakes after the game and has not created a bad image on the screen, then I’m all for their passion.”
According to Swann, whatever happened on that day between Gambhir and Kohli was nothing compared to what he had witnessed during his playing days in an Australia vs England Ashes Test series. “Let’s face it, if there was never any conflict in sport, it would be so dull. Having played Ashes test series throughout my life, this is nothing compared to that.”
While, the duo has not spoken about the incident further, Naveen-ul-Haq, the Afghan pacer has not let it go yet. It was an exchange between Kohli and Naveen that gave to birth to bigger conflict on that day. His two social media posts after the incident made it clear that he was yet to move on.
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