IPL 2023: The infamous Gambhir-Kohli spat

On 1st May 2023, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) Mentor Gautam Gambhir and former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli were seen engaging in a heated argument, clips of which made headlines and sparked its own fair share of memes on the internet.

But what actually went down here?

LSG vs RCB- 1st May 2023

Things unraveled when RCB and LSG were involved in more than just an on-field face-off on 1st May 2023. The chain of events seemed to have begun following what appeared to have been sledging (intentionally insulting or verbally intimidating an opposing player) involving Kohli and LSG’s batsman Naveen Ul-Haq when the latter came to bat. 

In the last ball of the 17th over of LSG’s innings, RCB fast bowler Siraj bowled a bouncer to Naveen which was then ruled as a no-ball. Siraj then threw the ball into the stumps at the striker’s end despite Naveen being at crease. 

Things might have gone out of hand if Amit Mishra had not intervened between Kohli and Naveen to separate them when they seemed to have a heated exchange.

Kohli’s finger on the lips, getting back at Gambhir’s Chinnaswamy move

RCB ended up winning the match against LSG, following which Kohli silenced the Lucknow crowd by putting his finger on his lips, seemingly getting back at Gambhir who did the same at Chinnaswamy stadium when LSG secured a win against RCB in the first leg.

Post-Match Argument Syndrome:

As the match came to an end, during the post-match rituals, LSG opener Mayers could be seen conversing with Kohli however, Gambhir came between them and pulled Mayers away. This move irked both Gambhir and Kohli after which they seemed to be involved in an on-field heated exchange which later turned ugly as tempers flared.

Both Kohli and Gambhir have been fined for breaching Article 2.21 of the IPL Code of Conduct (public acts of misconduct, unruly behavior and inappropriate comments that are detrimental to the interest of the game). They have both been fined 100 percent of their match fee, whereas Naveen Ul-Haq has been fined 50 percent of his match fee.

Kohli vs Gambhir in 2013: Decade-old history repeats itself

Truly not the first time they have clashed as ten years ago both were involved in an ugly altercation at Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy when Gambhir, the then captain of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) made snide remarks at his counterpart Kohli, while celebrating his wicket. 

Sunil Gavaskar’s take on the whole spat:

Following the Kohli-Gambhir spat, former Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar questioned the punishment meted out to both players and sought for stricter action to be imposed against them, to prevent such similar untoward incidents from taking place in the future. 

Both Kohli and Gambhir were fined 100 percent of their match fees for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct. During a conversation with Star Sports, Sunil Gavaskar spoke of the penalty both players were subjected to being not enough.  He said, “ What is a 100 percent match fee? What exactly is a 100 percent match fee? If it is Kohli, who is on maybe ₹17 crore for RCB, which means ₹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 ₹1 crore and more? Well, that’s a very, very stiff fine”

Gavaskar even called for the suspension on a few games as one of the solutions so that an impact such as that might affect the similar incidents from occurring. He said, “ “So, my point is do something which will make sure these things don’t happen again.  Make sure you do something that ensures that these things don’t happen and also something that will hurt the team. That’s a stiff one.”