Both don’t believe in pulling punches and have been carrying their own baggages of mutual dislike for each other.
During their latest face-off, there was liberal use of the north Indian profanity<\/a> which sounds similar to the name of English cricketer ‘Ben Stokes’.
Opinions are divided among those who were present after the IPL game between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants on Monday night, when the altercation took place between the two World Cup-winning players.
Some found it juvenile, a few others liked the spice and the idea of intense rivalry, while the firm believers of the ‘Gentlemen’s Game’ thought it could have been avoided.<\/p>\n
So what happened in Lucknow on Monday night?
An eyewitness, who was in one of the team dug-outs, gave a lowdown of events to PTI.
“You saw on TV that Mayers and Virat were walking side by side for a few metres post match. Mayers asked Kohli why was he constantly abusing them and Virat, in turn, questioned why was he (Mayers) ‘staring’ at him? Before that (Amit) Mishra had complained to umpire about Virat constantly abusing Naveen (ul-Haq), who is a No. 10 batter.<\/p>\n
“Gautam, sensing that things could turn ugly, pulled Mayers and told him not to have a conversation, when Virat made a comment. The heated exchange that followed seemed a bit juvenile,” he said.
“Gautam asked ‘Kya bol raha hain bol’ (What were you saying?) and Virat replied, ‘Maine aapko kuch bola hi naahin, aap kyon ghus rahein ho’ (Why are you coming in between when I haven’t told you anything).
“Gautam responded, ‘Tuney agar mere player ko bola hai, matlab tune meri family ko gaali diya hai. (You abused my player and that’s like abusing my family) and Virat’s reply was, ‘Toh aap apne family ko sambhal ke rakhiye’. (Then you take care of your family).<\/p>\n
1<\/span>\/14<\/p>\n Show Captions<\/p>\n <p>Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir added another chapter to their bitter rivalry as they got involved in an ugly face-off after the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants. <\/p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <p>Kohli and Gambhir were seen having a heated argument after RCB won the match by 18 runs on Monday night. <\/p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <p>Both Kohli and Gambhir were on Tuesday fined 100 per cent of their match fees for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct. <\/p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <p>The brief interaction between Kohli and LSG opener Kyle Mayers seemed to have triggered the altercation. <\/p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <p>While the players were shaking hands after the match, LSG bowler Naveen-ul-Haq and Kohli were seen exchanging words and Glenn Mexwell separated them. <\/p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <p>This was followed by Gambhir pulling away Mayers from a chat with Kohli. <\/p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <p>Just after that, Gambhir was seen charging towards Kohli even as LSG players, including the injured captain KL Rahul, restraining him. <\/p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <p>But eventually, Kohli and Gambhir were involved in a heated argument with players from both sides surrounding them. <\/p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <p>Gambhir looked the more animated of the two and was repeatedly held back from charging towards Kohli by the LSG players and support staff. <\/p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <p>Initially, Kohli was seen holding Gambhir’s shoulder, but as the heated exchange continued, Amit Mishra, Faf du Plessis and Vijay Dahiya stepped in to separate the duo. <\/p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <p>After the altercation, Kohli was also seen speaking to LSG captain Rahul. <\/p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <p>The last time when LSG and RCB clashed in Bengaluru in an IPL 2023 game, Gambhir had gestured towards the Bengaluru crowd with a ‘shut up’ sign. <\/p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <p>Kohli and Gambhir were also involved in a face-off 10 years ago in the IPL during RCB’s match against Kolkata Knight Riders in Bengaluru. <\/p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n “Gambhir’s final reply before they were separated was, ‘Toh ab tu mujhe sikhayega…’ (So now I have to learn from you…).” Kohli was then the superstar-in-the-making and Gambhir, out of the Indian team, was a shrewd captain at KKR.IPL 2023: Virat Kohli-Gautam Gambhir ugly face-off<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
The eyewitness said that while it was tense and a blow away from turning into a free-for-all, it all seemed a bit juvenile at both ends.
It was a ‘deja vu’ moment for everyone who had seen the duo nearly come to blows in 2013, when Kolkata Knight Riders were playing Royal Challengers Bangalore.<\/p>\n![\"cricket](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/imgsize-23456,msid-99939027,width-600,resizemode-4\/99939027.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
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Cut to 2023, Gambhir remains a firebrand who is a TV pundit and also mentor of a franchise where he is the remote-control skipper.
Ditto for Kohli, who remains the skipper of RCB<\/a> in spirit. On paper though, Faf du Plessis<\/a> is the captain.
“It is a bit of a complicated relationship between the two. Gautam is not a bad human being but not the easiest person to handle. He had no business to gesture that finger on lips to the crowd at Chinnaswamy, which swears by Virat’s name.
“Now here, Virat got a chance to show one upmanship, and he did. He knows that Gautam has been a staunch critic of his captaincy and even he won’t take a step back,” a former India player, who shared the dressing room with both, said.
As Kohli said in a RCB video, “You got to take it, otherwise don’t give it.”
Both players have been fined their full match fees although no one knows how a mentor’s penalty is computed by the BCCI.
It also didn’t help that Kohli has 55.4 million followers on Twitter alone, while the BJP Parliamentarian is no light either, with 12.5 million followers of his own.
The people in their close quarters are either trying to lionise them or create a false narrative. Like one from RCB’s social media content team asking regular skipper du Plessis about Kohli’s “aggression”, which bordered on boorishness. This is the same kind of aggression which the former India skipper admitted that it felt “fake”.
But the RCB social media team, in trying to justify it, is making themselves look more silly.
On the other hand, Gambhir’s political secretary Gaurav Arora from his Twitter handle @gauravbir786 wrote: “Asking your trolls to abuse Gautam Gambhir<\/a>‘s daughters is an unacceptable low. Matches will come and go. Show some class Kohli!”
In the end, it was another uncalled for bust-up and a rivalry from which no one came out smelling roses.<\/div>\n