It just wasn’t cricket: What Kohli, Gambhir & Naveen played on field

FOR A one-sided game with no standout individual performance, Lucknow Super Giants’ (LSG) home game against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) may still end up as the most talked-about game of this IPL season. An on-field spat triggered a football-style clash between the two teams, and saw angry exchanges between rival players and support staff in Lucknow late on Monday night. The next morning, it was the subject of viral videos, memes and endless discussions on stadium terraces, maidans and office water-coolers.

The cast of characters — RCB stand-in skipper Virat Kohli, LSG mentor Gautam Gambhir and Afghanan international Naveen-ul-Haq — involved in the drama have hory too. In the past, the two Delhi cricketers — Kohli and Gambhir — have been involved in at least two on-field altercations. And all-rounder Naveen, a journeyman T20 cricketer in franchise tournaments around the world, once rubbed Shahid Afridi the wrong way.
All three were fined for breaching the IPL’s code of conduct. Kohli and Gambhir lost their entire match fees, Naveen half of it.
As is cricket’s longstanding tradition, the players didn’t quite “shake hands and make up” after the game. Kohli said in an RCB video: “A sweet win. If you can give it, you got to take it. Otherwise don’t give it.”

Naveen, too, wasn’t apologetic. “You get what you deserve. That’s how it should be and that’s how it goes,” he posted on Instagram.
(from left to right) Lucknow Super Giants team mentor Gautam Gambhir, Lucknow Super Giants player Naveen-ul Haq and Royal Challengers Bangalore player Virat Kohli.
One of the many post-game trending videos showed LSG skipper K L Rahul having a chat with an animated Kohli near the boundary line. Naveen walks past them, turning down his captain’s apparent attempt at peace talks. Those in the know say the Afghanan all-rounder, after getting out, told one of his teammates: “I have come to play IPL, not to take abuses.”

This was in reference to the ugly farewell he got from an RCB player after he got out in the 17th over of the LSG innings. Pacer Mohammed Siraj and Kohli were seen having a word with Naveen, who turned back and confronted them. Non-striker batsman Amit Mishra, another Delhi-based player who plays for Haryana in domestic cricket, intervened, but he too got into an argument with Kohli.
The Kohli-Naveen tiff spilled over to the ceremonial end-of-game handshakes between the two teams. Again, words were exchanged and the two separated with Naveen pulling out of the handshake angrily.
After the award ceremony, LSG opener Kyle Mayers was seen chatting with Kohli. The conversation didn’t last long as Gambhir grabbed Mayers’s hand and pulled him away. This would be a primer for Gambhir’s subsequent face-off with Kohli moments later, as the two charged towards each other aggressively, even as their teammates tried to keep them apart.
Their action didn’t go down well with broadcast commentators. Former India captain Anil Kumble was on air when Kohli and Gambhir were having a go at each other. “A lot of emotion goes in (the game), but you don’t want to be displaying those emotions. Yes, you need to have a conversation but this is something that is unaccepted. No matter what, you have to respect the opposition. You have to respect the game,” he said.
“You may disagree on field, you may have a go at the opposition, you may say things on the field in the heat of the moment, but once the game is over, you just need to shake hands and doff your hat. Not to the player but to the game. Because that’s something you need to respect… I don’t know what was said. Some things may have been personal. That’s something you don’t want on the cricket field. Both with Virat, Gautam and whoever was involved, it wasn’t the nicest thing to see,” he said.
Kumble’s co-commentator and former India international Robin Uthappa was also on the same page. “It’s unbecoming for the game. I also want to say that if a bowler came up with the kind of celebrations that we saw earlier today, they would be docked or reprimanded for it,” he said.
During the game, Kohli was seen silencing the Lucknow crowd putting his finger on his lips – as Gambhir had done during LSG’s away win against Kohli’s side at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru earlier.
With players not in a mood to forgive and forget, the fans haven’t heard the last of IPL’s new rivalry. Kohli later posted a cryptic message on Instagram. Quoting Roman philosopher Marcus Aurelius, he wrote: “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”