The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) vs Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) may have not been a last-over thriller but the game made headlines for all the wrong reasons after Virat Kohli’s heated exchange with mentor Gautam Gambhir and their Afghan recruit Naveen-ul-Haq. As videos of the altercation have been making rounds on the internet and fans have been taking sides of Kohli and Gambhir, Women Premier League (WPL) franchise UP Warriorz posted a photo of their skipper Alyssa Healy with RCB Women captain Smriti Mandhana as they appealed for peace.
They used the emoji of a person putting finger on the list. In the April 1 fight's context, Gambhir did the gesture when LSG beat RCB at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium. Kohli did the same when he took catches and celebrated his team's 18-run victory over KL Rahul-led side. UP Warriorz followed it up with the yellow and red heart emojis asking fans to douse the flames.
Follow the verbal spat, Kohli took on to Instagram on April 2 and shared a post that read: "Everything that we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."
On the other hand, Naveen posted on Instagram, “You get what you deserve that's how it should and that's how it goes.”
Late in the night, Indian Premier League (IPL) in a statement announced that Kohli and Gambhir have been fined 100 per cent of their match fee for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct for breaching Article 2.21. Naveen was fined 50 per cent of his match fee for committing a Level 1 offence under Article 2.21 of the IPL Code of Conduct.
Former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh has urged Gambhir and Kohli to solve their differences. He also wrote in a tweet that he is ashamed of slapping S Sreesanth which led to a ban.
"There will be a lot of questions over whose fault it was, whether it was Kohli's, Gambhir's or Naveen's. A lot of heated words were exchanged, even while shaking hands you can see that Kohli immediately withdrew his hand," Harbhajan said.
"Virat and Gautam are from the same city, they have even won the World Cup together, so I think that they should spread a lovely message to cricket lovers together.
"If you see the highlights of this match, you'll say that there was more fighting than cricket going on. Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli already have their rivalry and differences from before itself. Their relationship was never the same after the incident at the Chinnaswamy Stadium long back," he added.
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