Earlier today, Gautam Gambhir made headlines. The reason? Well, he got into a heated verbal altercation with the chief pitch curator of the Oval Cricket Ground, Lee Fortis. There was a lot of finger-pointing from Gambhir. Some allege the Indian head coach even cursed at Fortis. The support staff even threatened to report Gambhir.
Officials from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) were involved. Fortis even called Gambhir ‘a bit touchy’ later. But what was the issue all about? According to India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak, the whole matter came about due to Fortis.
He says that the curator yelled at members of the support staff when they got near the pitch, and that’s what upset Gambhir, and that’s why, in the now viral video, he yelled, “You can’t tell us what to do!” to Fortis.
Why did Gambhir & Oval pitch curator fight?
The curator didn’t want Indian players or support staff to get anywhere near the pitch. He wished to grow even more grass on it and objected to them getting close. Kotak shared that they weren’t wearing spiked shoes and couldn’t have damaged the pitch in any way.
“When we were having a conversation near the pitch. They had sent a man to send a message for us to stay 2.5 m away from the pitch. We were wearing joggers. We know curators are possessive about the square. What he said about the head coach is his opinion, and I don’t want to comment. We did nothing wrong; we were wearing rubber spikes.
People are highly skilled and intelligent. None of the bowlers were even wearing spikes. You can be protective but not arrogant. It is not an antique that you can’t touch. He said we are trying to grow the grass. At the end of the day, it’s a cricket pitch,” Kotak told reports at the Oval.
Gambhir was threatened with an official complaint against him. Kotak was asked whether Team India would report the matter, and the batting coach said no.
“The curator yelled at the support staff when they were getting the icebox. Gambhir said he couldn’t talk like that. Everyone knows the curator at The Oval is not the easiest person to deal with. We will not be lodging any complaints,” he added.
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