Legendary Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar called for more severe punishments, such as suspensions, for players involved in fights on the pitch. Gavaskar’s remarks came after an ugly argument between Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir during an IPL 2023 match in Lucknow.
Gavaskar’s take
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar suggested severe penalties be enforced to prevent fights like the one between Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir that occurred during the Indian Premier League game. After the IPL 2023 match between the Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Lucknow on Monday, May 1, Gavaskar expressed disappointment at seeing Gambhir and Kohli engage in a verbal altercation.
BCCI has charged Kohli and Gambhir 100 percent match fees as a penalty for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct. However Gavaskar, in conversation with Star Sports, called for more stringent measures to ensure that such fights do not take place in the future.
“Well, I saw the visuals only a while ago, I did not see the match live yesterday. These things never look good. What is a 100 percent match fee? What exactly is a 100 percent match fee? If it is Kohli, who is on maybe Rs 17 crore for RCB, which means Rs 17 crore for a possible 16 matches, including the semi-finals, and finals. So you are talking about a crore of rupees. Is he going to be fined Rs 1 crore and more? Well, that’s a very, very stiff fine,” Gavaskar told Star Sports.
Stiff punishment
“I don’t know what Gambhir’s situation is. They should ensure that this is not repeated. You are hoping that this is not repeated because it’s such a stiff fine, such a stiff punishment.
You want to play it hard, play it competitively. During the time that we played, there was a bit of banter, but there was none of this aggression that we see now. A lot of it has got to do with the fact that everything is on TV too. Because of the fact that you are on TV, you tend to do maybe just that little bit extra,” he added.
Gavaskar even suggested suspending players who engage in such behavior for a couple of games so that their teams bear the brunt of the punishment.
“So, my point is do something which will make sure, these things don’t happen again. If it has to you know, like it happened with Harbhajan and Sreesanth 10 years ago, that you have to ask them to maybe step aside for a couple of matches. Make sure you do something that ensures that these things don’t happen and also something that will hurt the team. That’s a stiff one,” he added.
