ISLAMABAD
\nOver the years, outrageously innovative batsmen and ridiculously unconventional bowlers have made T20 games look like gully cricket on steroids. Earlier this week at the end of the Lucknow Super Giants vs Royal Challengers Bangalore match, captain Virat Kohli and rival coach Gautam Gambhir, put a final stamp on IPL\u2019s street-cricketisation.
\nIt\u2019s the end of correctness and death of decorum \u00f1 franchise cricket will soon have no resemblance to the sport that was once played by men in flanneled whites. If cricket was a person, it would have filed for demerger with T20 cricket.
\nThe scenes that unfolded after the acrimonious that game \u00f1 the appalling abusive argument between Gambhir and Kohli that was just one push or nudge away from it turning into a mass brawl \u00f1 underlined IPL\u2019s reputation as cricket\u2019s rebellious wayward off-spring. It was also a new low for the world\u2019s showpiece T20 event. This was worse than Harbhajan slapping Sreesanth, here were two leaders behaving like trouble-making tennis-ball cricketers involved in a \u00ebwinner takes all\u2019 weekend game at some West Delhi park, corner of a crowded Mumbai maidan, a Kolkata para or a Chennai school compound.
\nTheir behaviour was more suited for a game with no real umpires, no television cameras, no role models in playing XI and no one with a reputation worth protecting. Two grown-ups, both fathers, one Member of Parliament and the other being world cricket\u2019s biggest star\u00f3 they can\u2019t be publicly seen shaking off peace-makers around them and heading towards each other like truckers gripped by road rage.
\nSince both Kohli and Gambhir are brands and also have an army of social media followers \u00f1 the former wins that race hands down \u00f1 their respective PR machinery has been on overdrive. Spin-doctors, in-house content generators and pliable cricket commentators have been given damage-control tasks. But this one is tough to pull off. The visuals are too powerful and way too many. When you are in a stadium full of cameras; you can\u2019t doctor the tapes, escape blame or take any moral high-ground. Once you enter the mud-pit, you can claim you have less dirt but still you will be taken to the cleaners. By dishing out the same punishment to both, the match-referee, the one aware of all facts, has given the same weightage to both indiscretions.
\nWhen the spat was shown live to the world \u00f1 interestingly the broadcaster historically known to blank out anything that brings IPL to disrepute didn\u2019t ask their cameras to look away \u00f1 on air was Anil Kumble. He has seen both Kohli and Gambhir closely.\u00ecThis is unacceptable. No matter what, you have to respect the opposition. You have to respect the game,\u00ee he said.
\nVirender Sehwag isn\u2019t known for his subtleness. He is best-suited to speak on this issue. Like Gambhir and Kohli, he too did the hard yards on the brutally competitive Delhi circuit. Sehwag grew up in Najafgarh, the badland on the outskirts of Delhi. On a cricket field, he has seen, and heard, it all. So when Sehwag says he was shocked by the behaviour of his Delhi and India mates, it is a red-flag for the BCCI.
\nSehwag is now a father of a budding cricketer. Aaryavir was in the Delhi U-16 team. He would have seen Gambhir bat with his father, he would have dreamt to have a Kohli-like career. Sehwag was worried about the impact of the ugly optics on youngsters.
\n\u00ecMy own kids can lip-read and they very well understand Ben Stokes (The most uttered Hindi abusive on field rhymes with the names of the English cricketer). So that is when I feel bad. If you\u2019re 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,\u00ee he said on Cricbuzz.
\nOnce upon a time..
\nKohli and Gambhir should have known better, they should have settled their grudges in a more dignified way. The two go back a long way. In 2006, when Kohli played his first game for Delhi, Gambhir was his senior. As is the Delhi dressing room custom, Gambhir was \u00eb\u00ecbhaiya\u2019\u00ee to Kohli. At Kotla, juniors usually are given nicknames that would caricature their appearance. All thanks to his chubby cheeks, Kohli was called Cheeku, the comic book bunny popular with kids in that era.
\nTwo years later Gautam Bhaiya and Cheeku would be India\u2019s openers, they would go on to be in the World Cup winning team of 2011. Subsequently, with age catching up and reflexes slowing, Gambhir\u2019s career would taper. This was the time during the Dhoni era, when seniors were being treated as burden and juniors were pressing their claim to replace them. Gambhir, the one-time captaincy candidate, would have a tepid end to his international career.
\nOn the other hand, Cheeku\u2019s stakes would skyrocket. He would scale new heights, break barriers, smash records. From the obvious heir apparent, he would be Indian cricket\u2019s highly successful most powerful captain till the time he quit captaincy in 2021.
\nMeanwhile, Gambhir would win two titles with KKR, a feat that Kohli hasn\u2019t achieved till date. He would enter politics, be BJP\u2019s candidate from East Delhi, get into parliament with a landslide win that had a margin of around 7,00,000 votes. Gambhir\u2019s batting numbers are no comparison to Kohli\u2019s but the fans value his body of work, remembering his two game-changing knocks in the two World Cups India has won this century. Kohli\u2019s performance in crucial do-or-die ICC games isn\u2019t too flattering.
\nAway from the field they are contrasting characters. Kohli can talk, shake a leg and hobnob with Bollywood. He is a marketing man\u2019s dream, a complete package, invaluable to global brands. He is also the life of a dressing room, who fools around team mates. Gambhir is a natural leader, not averse to expressing contrarian views, is articulate and tactically sharp. But is more serious, reserved and despite KKR owner\u2019s repeated attempts to teach his captain and mentor to dance he doesn\u2019t quite hit the floor.
\nKohli, of late, has spoken about being calm and composed and turning a new leaf. Clearly, he is a work in progress. Gambhir\u2019s stint as a politician hasn\u2019t made him understand the nuance of parliamentary behaviour. Jealousy and one-upmanship are seen as the reason for the two repeatedly locking horns in public over the last 10 years. That\u2019s just a wild guess, an uneducated easy inference of those who aren\u2019t insiders. The answer could be hidden in the reaction of the authorities, public and those who are close to them.
\nSo how did the world react to the imbecile behaviour of the country\u2019s sporting icons?
\nBCCI docked 100 per cent of their match fee, the rationale being that financial loss could deter them from repeating their shameful act. For the deep-pocketed cricketers, this is merely a friendly tap on their knuckles. It is also likely that it will be the franchise who will end up paying the fine.
\nThe fans too weren\u2019t too outraged. Since that night of shame, the new-age opinion makers \u00f1 the comics and content creators \u00f1 have been cheering for more, reducing the outlandish act to a joke. Reality TV and OTT platforms have mainstreamed rancour. The peaceniks too aren\u2019t sounding convincing. Ravi Shastri has volunteered to sit across the table with Gambhir and Kohli. This isn\u2019t a new fight, didn\u2019t Shastri have enough sit-ins with Kohli during his long stint as India coach? Clearly it hasn\u2019t helped.
\nThe real reason the two hotheads have frequent bust-ups is because they have been allowed to get away with their boorish behaviour all the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD Over the years, outrageously innovative batsmen and ridiculously unconventional bowlers have made T20 games look like gully cricket on steroids. Earlier this week at the end of the Lucknow Super Giants vs Royal Challengers Bangalore match, captain Virat Kohli and rival coach Gautam Gambhir, put a final stamp on IPL\u2019s street-cricketisation. It\u2019s the end […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329866,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-329847","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n