Dubai: A verbal spat was turning ugly between Gautam Gambhir and Sreesanth that broke during the Legends League Cricket 2023 Eliminator at the Lalbhai Contractor Stadium on Wednesday.
Gambhir who was playing for India Capitals won by 12 runs against Gujarat Giants which had Sreesanth in the team.
Sreesanth put up a video post the match blaming Gambhir for needlessly provoking him during the match and expressed how terribly offended he was by Gambhir’s remarks. “Just wanted to clear some air on what happened with Mr. Fighter, who always fights with all his colleagues for no reason whatsoever. He doesn’t even respect his own senior players, including Viru bhai and a lot of people. That’s exactly what happened today. Without any provocation, he just kept on calling me, something which is very rude and something which should not have been said by Mr. Gautam Gambhir,” Sreesanth said after the match.
“So, I just want to tell you all that I am not at all at fault. I just wanted to clear the air straight away. Sooner or later you’ll get to know what Gauti has done. The words which he used and the things he said on a cricket field live are 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. Even when myteam is doing well, he said things he shouldn’t have said. I will surely let you know what he said,” Sreesanth said.
“What’s the point of representing people if you don’t respect your own colleagues? Even in live 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 …. Just want to I haven’t used a single bad word or a single abuse, nothing. He just kept on saying words which he always does,” Sreesanth added.
On Thursday morning, Sreesanth went live on a social media platform and accused Gambhir of using the ‘F’ word. The Kerala pacer also said that Gambhir called him ‘fixer’, referring to the 2013 Indian Premier League (IPL) spot-fixing scandal.
“He kept on calling me, on live television, on the centre pitch ... I did not use a single bad word. I kept on saying ‘What are you saying? What are you saying?”. In fact, I kept laughing in a sarcastic way because he kept calling me ‘fixer, fixer’. Forgive my language but he said (expletive) fixer.’ This is the language which he used on live TV. In fact, he used the same language when the umpires tried to control him. In fact, I moved way, but he kept repeating the same thing.
“This is to clear the air. This is the real truth,” Sreesanth said.
After India Capitals decided to bat first against Gujarat Giants in the match, Gambhir and Sreesanth got into a furious disagreement during Gambhir’s batting spell, and the umpires had to step in to keep things civil.
Sreesanth’s wife Bhuvneshwari also reacted on the incident. “It is so shocking to hear from Sree that a player who has played for India with him for many years can stoop to this level. Even after so many years of retirement from
Active cricket. After all upbringing matters a lot and it shows up when these kind of behaviour comes up on ground. Shocking truly shocking,” Bhuvneshwari Sreesanth wrote while commenting on a video post by her husband on Instagram.
As it happened, on Thursday morning, Gambhir posted an enigmatic note on social media, perhaps downplaying the issue sparked by Sreesanth.
“Smile when the world is all about attention,” Gambhir said on social media platform X.
-With inputs from agencies
