Gautam Gambhir gets into an animated and heated chat with The Oval curator ahead of fifth Test against England. (TimesofIndia.com)
TimesofIndia.com in London: Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir and the groundstaff of The Oval were involved in a heated exchange on Tuesday, two days before the start of the fifth and final Test of the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.Team India, who reached London on Monday, were scheduled to have their first practice session on Tuesday. However, head coach Gautam Gambhir was reportedly unhappy with the facilities provided to the visiting team.The conversation escalated into a major altercation, leaving coach Gambhir visibly furious. He was seen repeatedly pointing fingers at the ground staff and shouting, “You can’t tell us what to do!” The situation became tense, and the duo had to be separated by batting coach Sitanshu Kotak and other members of the Indian support staff.TimesofIndia.com has learnt that The Oval’s ground staff have threatened to lodge a complaint against the India head coach. Unfazed, Gambhir reportedly shouted back, “You can go and report to whoever you want, but you can’t tell us what to do.”
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Team India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak revealed the reason behind the heated argument.“When we were looking at pitch, they asked us to stand 2.5m away. We were wearing joggers. It was very odd. Looking at wicket with rubber spike, nothing wrong. We see ground is not damaged. Its a pitch, not antique,” he told reporters.“Curator yelled at support staff when they were getting ice box. Gambhir objected at that. The way he spoke irked Gambhir. Everyone knows curator at The Oval is not the easiest person to deal with,” he said.The fifth and final Test of the series is scheduled to begin on Thursday.
Here’s the full text of the heated conversation that took place between Gambhir and Oval curator
🔴Curator: Don’t swear again, don’t swear again or I’ll report you to the match referee.🔴Gambhir: Go report. Go do whatever you want to do. Go F*** o** now.🔴Kotak and Curator in a conversation Gambhir jumps in and tells Kotak: Tell this a**, tell him to f*** o** report it to the match-referee. Don’t f***ing get into a discussion with him.🔴Curator: Inaudible🔴 Gambhir: You stop it. Don’t tell us what we need to do. You don’t tell us what we need to do. You don’t tell us what we need to do.🔴Curator: Inaudible🔴Gambhir: Ok, you don’t tell any of us what we need to do. You don’t tell us. You don’t have any right to tell us. You don’t have any right to tell us what we need to do, ok? You are just a groundsman, so just stay in your capacity. You are just a groundsman, nothing beyond that. Just a groundsman.🔴Curator: Inaudible🔴Gambhir: You are just a groundsman. Just a groundsman, stay in your capacity.