Former Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has expressed his concern regarding the recent altercation between Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir during the IPL match happened in Lucknow. Gavaskar asked for strict punishments so that such incidents does not happen again in the future. He expressed his disappointment over the incident which occurred during the match between Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore on May 1st in Lucknow.
While talking about the recent spat between Kohli and Gambhir, Sunil Gavaskar has suggested the implementation of more severe punishments such as suspensions for a few matches so that they don’t dare to replicate the same incidents again . He also highlighted the role of TV broadcasting in contributing to the aggressive behavior of players. Gavaskar suggested that players are more prone to aggressive outbursts on the field due to the added pressure of being live on the television.
“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 percent match fee? What exactly is a 100 percent match fee? If it is Kohli, who is on maybe Rs 17 crore for RCB, which means Rs 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 Rs 1 crore and more? Well, that’s a very, very stiff fine,” Gavaskar told Star Sports.
The legendary batter said that there were sledging culture during his time but no cricketer used to cross their line as it happened between the RCB and LSG clash.
“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,” he added.
After the on-field banter, between Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli were fined 100 percent of their match fees. The incident which was caught on camera at the Shri Atal Bihrri Vajpayee Stadium. KL Rahul, Far Du Plessis and Amit Mishra were some players who came in between to separate Kohli and Gambhir during that heated conversation.
