Sunil Gavaskar, former Indian cricket team captain, on Saturday launched a never-heard-before attack regarding an interview by Virat Kohli on his critics. It all started as IPL's official broadcasters showed an interview where Kohli blasted former players and experts who "sit and talk about the game in the box". "All the people who talk about strike-rates and me not playing spin well are the ones talking about this stuff. For me, it's about winning the games for the team and there's a reason why you've done it for 15 years, you've done this day in and day out, you've won games for your teams, I'm not quite sure that if you haven't been in that situation yourself, to sit and talk about the game in the box. For me, people can talk about their assumptions day in and day out, but those who have done day in and day out, they know what's happening and it's a kind of muscle memory for me now," Kohli said after an IPL match in Ahmedabad.
Sunil Gavaskar referred to the interview ahead of the RCB vs GT match on Saturday and launched a scathing attack as it was being shown repeatedly. The batting legend felt that such comments was a direct insult to the knowledge of the former cricketers, who are working as experts. Throughout the rant by Sunil Gavaskar, Virat Kohli's visuals were being shown in split screen.
"Commentators questioned only when his strike rate was 118. I'm not too sure. I don't watch too many matches, so I don't know what the other commentators have said otherwise. But if you come and open and then have a strike of 118 when you get out in the 14th or the 15th over, I mean, if you want applause for that, that's a little bit different. That's different,," said Gavaskar on Star Sports.
"But for Star Sports to show the person belittling their own commentators, I'm not sure that's a great thing. So I think Star Sports needs to understand that they have shown it enough times, everyone's got the message."
He added that stars like Kohli should not bother to respond on 'outside noise' if they don't care about it.
"All these guys talk about, 'oh we don't care about outside noise'. Accha! Then why are you replying to any outside noise or whatever it is. We all played a bit of cricket, not a lot of cricket. We don't have agendas. We speak about what we see. We don't necessarily have any likes and dislikes. Even if we have likes and dislikes, we actually speak on what is happening," Gavaskar said.
The former Indian cricket team skipper even criticised IPL's official broadcasters for showing Kohli's interview time and again.
"I hope Star Sports realises that when that clip is shown, questioning the critics, the critics are your own commentators. For you to show the person belittling your own commentators, I'm not sure that's a great thing. You need to realise you have shown it enough times, everybody's got the message. I would be very disappointed if you show it once more."