Gautam Gambhir allegedly makes obscene gesture; claims spectators made anti-India chants | Cricket News

World Cup winning opener and BJP Member of Parliament Gautam Gambhir was in the eye of a storm on Monday after a purported video of him making an obscene gesture towards a group of fans went viral on social media. In the clip from the ongoing Asia Cup in Sri Lanka, where Gambhir is doing commentary, the fans can be heard chanting the name of an India cricketer when he allegedly made the gesture. However, Gambhir said that those in the stands were chanting anti-India slogans.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the India-Nepal game, Gambhir said: “What is shown on social media has no truth in it because people show whatever they want to show. The truth about the video that went viral is that if you raise anti-India slogans and speak about Kashmir, the person before you will obviously react and not smile and leave. There were 2-3 Pakanis there who were speaking anti-India things and things on Kashmir. So, it was my natural reaction. I can’t hear anything against my country. So, that was my reaction.”Most Read
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Gambhir also put out a tweet on the issue: “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. Not everything is as it seems. Any Indian would react how I did to the kind of slogans used against our nation. I love our players; I love my country.”

#WATCH | Kandy, Sri Lanka | On his recent viral video during Asia Cup 2023, former cricketer and BJP MP Gautam Gambhir says, “What is shown on social media has no truth in it because people show whatever they want to show. The truth about the video that went viral is that if you… pic.twitter.com/RX4MJVhmyd
— ANI (@ANI) September 4, 2023
A couple of days ago, Gambhir had said that he is against cricketers displaying too much camaraderie with players of the rival team in the middle of games.
Gambhir’s comments were made during the India-Pakan game. The left-hander, who was part of the team that won the 2011 World Cup, had blamed franchise cricket for the game losing a bit of aggression these days.

“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes”.
Not everything is as it seems. Any Indian would react how I did to the kind of slogans used against our nation. I love our players & I love my country. 🇮🇳🇮🇳
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) September 4, 2023
“When you play on the field for your national team, you must leave the friendship outside the boundary ropes. Game face hona zaroori hai. Dosti bahaar rehni chahiye. (You must have your game face on. Leave friendship outside.) There has to be aggression in the eyes of both sets of players. You can be as friendly as you want after those six or seven hours of cricket. Those hours are very important, because you’re not just representing yourself, you’re representing a nation of over a billion,” Gambhir had said in the mid-innings show on Star Sports.

“These days you see players of rival teams patting each other on the back and exchanging f bumps during a match. You would never see that a few years ago. Aap friendly match nahi khel rahe ho (you are not playing a friendly match),” he had said.