From elbowing opponents to ugly spats with teammates, Gautam Gambhir, the newly appointed India Men's head coach, has had a long history with controversial incidents. Here's a recap of some of his most infamous controversies.
The transition from Rahul Dravid to Gambhir will be a significant one for the India dressing room. While both were highly successful cricketers of their time, their personalities can be safely described as polar opposite of each other's.
Dravid's aggressive episodes were restricted to smashing rear-view mirrors of cars for credit card advertisements and throwing away caps in anger before immediately regretting and recalling it as "not one of his proudest moments". Gambhir's on the other hand, include flipping the finger at crowds as a broadcaster and then defending his act, among others.
Whether the India team will follow the footsteps of their new coach, or whether Gambhir, whose name literally translates to serious in Hindi, will be a little less Gambhir going forward, is anyone's guess.
Gambhir's list of controversies
The elbow nudge
One of Gambhir's most famous incidents from his playing time, where he elbowed Shane Watson, who was in his follow-through, while completing a double during his career best knock of 206 at his home ground in Delhi. He was promptly banned for the next game by the match referee. Years later, Gambhir revealed that the act wasn't intentional. Hmm.
No love lost for the neighbours
Gambhir has had several run-ins with Pakistan players during his playing days. One of the most well-known ones among them was his spat with wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal at the 2010 Asia Cup. Akmal's excessive appealing irked Gambhir, a fact he let the Pakistan player know in no uncertain terms. At one point, there was almost nothing to separate the two as they mouthed off presumably unpleasant words at each other's faces.
Gambhir would later complain in a talkshow that the broadcasters decided to show his "heated arguments" with Akmal at the drinks break instead of the usual advertisements. You can probably imagine why.
Also read: Gambhir's coaching challenge: Balancing intensity and diplomacy
Who won the 2011 World Cup for India?
This doesn't require a lot of context. Let's just look at a few of Gambhir's comments about the 2011 World Cup victory, one of the most significant achievements in Indian cricket history, in isolation. Derive whatever judgement you will from them.
"Do you think that only one individual won us the World Cup?"
"Unfortunately, in India, it's only about worshipping certain individuals. I've never believed in that."
"Why do we keep remembering about one six?"
"If one six can win you the World Cup, then I think Yuvraj Singh should have won six World Cups for India, because he hit six sixes in an over."
"The media can talk about certain individuals. It does not bother me one bit."
"Yuvraj didn’t had a good PR agency and that’s why he was not given a credit for his tournament winning performance for India."
"MS Dhoni got the award but I feel Zaheer Khan was the real Man of the Match."
Just two Delhi guys being two Delhi guys
Gambhir's history with Virat Kohli includes sharing his Player of the Match award with Kohli's 20-year-old self, running at him at an IPL game four years later after his dismissal, getting in an argument with him, now 34, after another IPL game 11 years later, and several instances of hitting out at him as a pundit for havnig not won the league with RCB.
Also read: Cake, clashes and cryptic tweets: A not-so-brief history of the Virat Kohli-Gautam Gambhir feud
Whether the friendly hug the two Delhi boys shared at the Eden Gardens during an IPL 2024 match was a foreshadowing of a happier phase in their relationship, or an aberration, only time will tell. Opposition teams will do well, however, to not agitate the duo too much when playing India.
I shouldn't have been a cricketer
In a rapid-fire question-answer round on a YouTube channel, Gambhir, double World Cup-winner, recently said that his biggest regret in life was that he became a cricketer. Unfortunately (or fortunately, who knows), he never elaborated on this statement.
Flipping the finger
At the 2023 Asia Cup, Gambhir was heckled by the crowd in Sri Lanka leading him to show them the finger. The muffled audio in the videos that went viral signalled chants of "Kohli, Kohli" being directed at him, but the former India captain clarified that people were raising anti-India slogans, specifically on Kashmir, which led him to react that way. This incident occured when he was a sitting member of parliament.
The Sreesanth Legends League saga
Playing at the 2023 Legends League, Gambhir an Sreesanth, both part of the 2007 and 2011 World Cup-winning Indian teams, were seen exchanging heated words during and after a game. What seemed like a usual heat-of-the-moment incident to start with evolved into a major social media war with Sreesanth claiming Gambhir called him a "fixer".
Messi or Ronaldo?
Another rapid fire question answer show and another response that made the headlines. Gambhir was aksed to choose between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, with no other context given to him other than the names of the two players. The new India head coach promptly answered Marcus Rashford. It caught even the most die-hard of Manchester United and Rashford fans by surprise.
Later, Gambhir explained that he answered who his favourite player was, and that he couldn't be forced to pick a player he didn't like. If his original answer set off a meme-fest on social media, his explanation only added to its intensity.
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