Former India teammates Gautam Gambhir and S Sreesanth clashed with each other at the 2023 Legends League Cricket. This is a narrative that looks at both sides of the story and talks about bit of a history when it comes to their issues.
What happened between Gambhir and Sreesanth?
A bit of a background to this incident between Gambhir and Sreesanth.
Both Gambhir and Sreesanth have played in two World Cup winning sides for India – having featured in the 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2011 – and having shared the dressing room for those many years, one would have thought there might have been a certain amount of respect for each other.
That myth was broken when the two went head to head while playing for two different teams at the Legends League Cricket.
Gautam Gambhir-led India Capitals were taking on Parthiv Patel’s Gujarat Giants in the Eliminator on December 6, with the losing team crashing out of the competition. The Lalbhai Contractor Stadium in Surat played host.
With his team batting first, Gambhir and Kirk Edwards were at the crease with Sreesanth bowling the sixth over of the innings.
Sreesanth had just finished his second over, having conceded 20 from those two and was walking back when the two of them – Gambhir and Sreesanth – got involved in a verbal battle.
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From here on, I will have to rely on player accounts and the videos that have been released to tell you what transpired but one thing is certain – things did threaten to explode into another of those on-field fights between two players who have had such a reputation.
It started with Sreesanth instigating a staring match with Gambhir after the former Indian opener had hit him for a couple of boundaries.
Gambhir stared back before it took a turn for the worse.
The batter seemed to have said something to Sreesanth, who agitatedly replied something on the lines of “how can you call me that?”
The two umpires and a few of the Gujarat Giants fielders had to separate the two of them with Sreesanth later alleging that Gambhir had called him a (match-)fixer.
Here’s one angle of the what exactly transpired between the players.
Emotions are always running high, when you were very passionate about your game.
Sreesanth and Gambhir in an animated chat during the @llct20 Eliminator!#LegendsLeagueCricket pic.twitter.com/Qjz8LqC41l
— Nikhil 🏏 (@CricCrazyNIKS) December 6, 2023
ESPNCricinfo – and other media outlets – also posted a video depicting the incident with the stump mics catching Sreesanth retorting back at Gambhir and asking those around him, “how can he say fixer?”
What is the Legends League Cricket?
More information on the Legends League Cricket can be found here
. It’s a Twenty20 competition played in India between six teams consisting of retired cricketers from India and overseas.
It was the second season of the tournament in 2023 when this incident occurred, with India Capitals, Gujarat Giants, Bhilwara Kings, Manipal Tigers, Southern Super Stars and Urbanrisers Hyderabad featuring in the competition that year.
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Why did Gambhir allegedly refer to Sreesanth as a fixer?
Sreesanth has alleged in a series of social media posts that Gambhir called him a fixer and that’s what led to their on-field argument.
The Kerala seamer said:
“He kept on calling me ‘fixer fixer, you are a fixer, **** off you fixer on live television on centre wicket. I just said ‘what are you saying’, I kept laughing in a sarcastic way. He spoke to the umpires in the same language when they tried to control him.”
The background to this is from Sreesanth’s past which had seen him get banned for life by the BCCI for alleged spot-fixing. This was reduced to a seven-year ban later at the behest of BCCI Ombudsman Justice (retired) D.K. Jain.
The events leading up to Sreesanth’s ban from cricket had come at the 2013 IPL.
This was after Delhi Police revealed that three Indian cricketers featuring in the Indian Premier League, Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan had allegedly been involved in spot-fixing while playing for Rajasthan Royals in that tournament.
As a result they had been arrested but later released on bail by the Patiala High Court because of lack of evidence under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act. This was after Sreesanth had spent 27 days in jail.
In cricket journalist Jarrod Kimber’s words, “A trial court in Delhi had dropped charges against him – primarily because, in the absence of a specific law against match-fixing, the Delhi police had charged him for violation of an organised-crime law (MCOCA, or the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act), and evidence for that was insufficient”.
Essentially, while the Indian courts had released Sreesanth from jail because India didn’t have a law that to punish match or spot-fixing, the BCCI had banned him for life because they allegedly had enough evidence of fixing to be able to do so under their anti-corruption code.
Later, BCCI Ombudsman Justice (retired) D.K. Jain had recommended to the Indian cricket board that they reduce his life ban to seven years.
What did Sreesanth call Gambhir Mr. Fighter?
It was no surprise that Sreesanth was miffed at being called a fixer, if indeed that was the case. In response, he put up a story on Instagram, in which he gave his version of the events and went on to call Gambhir a fighter.
This might have been to do with Gambhir’s past incidents on and off the field of play, which have been spoken about on the site as well.
For instance, Gambhir has been involved in a verbal battle with Virat Kohli in the past including when Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq had clashed in the IPL. He has also had a run-in with former Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi in an ODI in Kanpur.
This isn’t to say that Sreesanth hasn’t had his own set of controversies other than the aforementioned spot-fixing allegations.
He was warned by BCCI to keep his emotions in check after being involved in the Slapgate controversy with Harbhajan Singh. There have also been other incidents in which Sreesanth has been asked to calm down by his own team members, including former skipper MS Dhoni.
What did the Legends League Cricket organisers do?
As things stand right now, the Legends League Cricket T20 commissioner has sent Sreesanth a notice for breaching his contract.
More details on what part of the contract has been breached are still awaited but Sreesanth has been asked to pull down his social media posts before any kind of talks could be initiated with the former Indian bowler.
This seems to be a bit of a surprise given those two things – an alleged social media contract breach by Sreesanth and that ugly spat on the field – are two different incidents which need to be handled in their own way.
If Sreesanth has indeed breached his contract – say by posting on social media – and he refuses to pull those posts down, then by all means he needs to be penalised in accordance with what the contract says.
But that, according to me, cannot come in the way of an inquiry that needs to be carried out for what transpired on the field of play.
More details are awaited on this as this is an ongoing event.
Photo Credit: President’s Secretariat (GODL-India)