IPL 2023: Harbhajan has known both of them and has played and shared the dressing room on a number of occasions with them.
Mumbai: Since Monday’s game between Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Ekana stadium, all the talk has been around Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir. Even after being slapped with fines, there are former cricketers who have made strong and critical observations. Former India cricketer Harbhajan Singh, on his YouTube channel, has promised to end Kohli-Gambhir’s fight and make them hug each other. Harbhajan has known both of them and has played and shared the dressing room on a number of occasions with them.
“I’ll make sure Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir meet and hug each other after the IPL. The fight will end,” said Harbhajan.
“The whole mood around the game was spoiled because of this brawl. I’m a player who’s lived through something similar. In 2008, a similar incident had happened between Sreesanth and me. 15 years later, I’m still embarrassed because of it. Back then I’d think, ‘Whatever happened,. it’s alright. Whatever I’ve done is okay.’ But I was wrong. What I did was wrong.” the stalwart said.
So what happened in Lucknow on Monday night? An eyewitness, who was in one of the team dug-outs, gave a lowdown of events to PTI.
“You saw on TV that Mayers and Virat were walking side by side for a few metres post match. Mayers asked Kohli why was he constantly abusing them and Virat, in turn, questioned why was he (Mayers) ‘staring’ at him? Before that (Amit) Mishra had complained to umpire about Virat constantly abusing Naveen (ul-Haq), who is a No. 10 batter.
“Gautam, sensing that things could turn ugly, pulled Mayers and told him not to have a conversation, when Virat made a comment. The heated exchange that followed seemed a bit juvenile,” he said.