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Former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag did not mince his words after his former teammates Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir got involved in an ugly verbal spat after Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) vs Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) clash at Ekana Stadium.
While Sehwag called Kohli and Gambhir icons, he said that the two have a responsibility as millions of budding cricketers follow their behaviour on the field. The explosive opener revealed that he did not know about the scuffle until the morning after RCB’s 18-run win over KL Rahul-led side.
“I switched off the TV once the match got over. I had no idea about what happened after the match. The next day when I woke up, I saw a lot of chaos on social media. What happened wasn’t right. The loser should quietly accept defeat and walk away and the winning team should celebrate. Why did they need to say anything to each other? I always say one thing, that these guys are icons of the country. If they do or say anything, millions of kids follow them and probably think ‘If my icon has done this, I would too’. So if they keep these things in mind, they would limit such incidents,” Sehwag was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
Like former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar, Sehwag also feels that a suspension is the way forward to prevent such incidents from taking place again.
“If the BCCI decides to ban anyone, then maybe such incidents will happen rarely or not take place at all. Such incidents have happened several times in the past so it’s better to do whatever you want inside the controlled environment of the dressing room,” he said.
“When you’re on the ground, these things don’t look nice. My own kids can lip-read and they very well understand Ben Stokes. So that is when I feel bad. If you’re saying such things, if my kids can read it, others can too and tomorrow they will think that if they (Kohli and Gambhir) can say it, so can I,” he added.
Both Kohli and Gambhir were fined 100 per cent of their match fee whereas Naveen was fined 50 per cent. However, as per a recent report, RCB is likely to take the burden of the fine and it won’t be paid by Kohli.
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