‘Smile when the world is all about attention’; Gautam Gambhir’s reply to Sreesanth

On Thursday, Gautam Gambhir, a former Indian batter, tweeted something mysterious. It’s interesting to note that Gambhir sent his tweet just a few hours after a video of him clashing with former Indian bowler Sreesanth during the Legends League Cricket (LLC) game between the Gujarat Giants and India Capitals surfaced on social media.

“Smile when the world is all about attention!” said the caption of Gambhir’s post, which featured a picture of him smiling.

A video of a fight between these two former Indian players surfaced on Thursday morning. It was evident that Gautam, the captain of the India Capitals, and the former Indian pacer, who was playing for Gujarat, were at odds. The umpire and other players had to keep the two apart. A video of Sreesanth discussing the event surfaced on social media after it happened. The former Indian batter, according to him, mistreated him and alleged that Gambhir did not show respect for his more experienced colleagues, such as Virender Sehwag, who served as his opening partner for many years.

“Thank you for all the love and support. Just wanted to clear the air on what happened with ‘Mr Fighter’ who always fights with all his colleagues for absolutely no reason. He does not even respect his own senior players including Viru bhai (Virender Sehwag) and a lot of people. Even today, without any provocation, he kept calling me something very rude and something he should not have said. I am not at all fault, wanted to clear the air,” said Sreesanth in the video.

“What Mr Gauti has done, you will know sooner or later. The words he said on the cricket field are not unacceptable. Please do support and me, my state and family have gone through so much and I fought those battles with all your support and now people want to down me for no reason, even when I am giving my best and the team is doing well,” continued the former pacer.

Sreesanth also charged Gambhir, who frequently provides commentary during Indian matches, of failing to mention star batsman Virat Kohli when he is questioned about him on the broadcasts. “I will let you all know what he said. What is the point of representing the people if you do not respect your colleagues? Even in live broadcasting, when he is asked about Virat, he never speaks about him, he speaks about something else. I do not want to go further in details. I am hurt, my family is hurt and my dear ones are hurt. The way he said things, I did not use any single bad/abusive word, he just kept on saying words, like he always does,” concluded Sreesanth.

Prior to the game, Gambhir’s (50) and Ben Dunk’s (30) and Bharat Chipli’s (35) wickets propelled the India Capitals to 223/7 in 20 overs. For Gujarat, Rajat Bhatia (2/37) was the best bowler. Chris Gayle (84) and Kevin O’Brian (57) contributed significantly to Gujarat’s chase of 224, but some outstanding death bowling ensured that Gujarat was 12 runs short. On December 7, 2023, the India Capitals and Manipal Tigers will square off in the Qualifiers II.