Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir were fined their entire match fee after a post-match altercation in the IPL 2023. The incident happened after the game between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants on Monday, which the former won by 18 runs. Afghan pacer Naveen-ul-Haq was also fined 50 per cent of his match fee for breaching the league's code of conduct. Kohli and Naveen were seen having sharp words on the field during a tense match in Lucknow.
Kohli and Gambhir shared a frosty handshake after the match, before both had a go at each other.
Kohli was seen having a conversation with LSG batter Kyle Mayers, only to be interrupted by Gambhir.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, however, wasn't happy with Kohli and Gambhir for having a go at each other.
"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," India Today quoted Gavaskar as saying on Star Sports.
Gavaskar said that one can only hope that such incidents don't happen in future.
"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.
Notably, Kohli and Gambhir, who have played together for India and Delhi, were also involved in an ugly on-field exchange in a 2013 IPL match.
(With AFP Inputs)