Tempers flared at The Oval on Tuesday as India head coach Gautam Gambhir obtained right into a heated exchange with the venue’s chief pitch curator, Lee Fortis.
The incident occurred halfway by way of India’s non-obligatory coaching session when Gambhir and the opposite teaching workers walked as much as the centre wicket to have a better have a look at the floor.
A couple of minutes prior, England coach Brendon McCullum and Rob Key, the managing director of the lads’s workforce, had examined the floor.
But in response to India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak, who was with Gambhir in the course of the incident, the curator sternly requested the Indian workers to remain two-and-a-half metres away from the floor, which got here as a shock to them.
Things obtained ugly just a few moments later when the help workers introduced the ice field to the bottom. “He [Fortis] yelled at the support staff that we should not go near the square. He said something that irked the head coach,” Kotak mentioned.
Fortis, a seasoned curator, could possibly be seen in an argument with the visibly upset Indian coach. As the Indian gamers and the help workers gathered round Gambhir, he could possibly be heard telling Fortis: “You can’t tell us what to do; you are just a groundsman and nothing beyond.”
Kotak needed to step in and take Fortis apart. As the information broke out, members of the Indian contingent and the ECB officers rushed to the scene, and there have been rounds of discussions, with Kotak becoming a member of them as effectively.
“As he was yelling, Gautam told him not to speak to the support staff in that manner. It was very normal for him to defend us, but that’s when the curator walked up and things got a bit [heated up],” Kotak mentioned.
“Even before coming to The Oval, we all knew that this curator was not the easiest person to deal with.”
According to Kotak, the help workers was simply assessing the floor when the curator interfered.
“He sent someone saying that we should stand away 2.5 metres from the pitch, which was surprising. We have all played cricket and we know that the curators could get over-protective with the square, but there’s nothing wrong in looking at the wicket two days before the game, with our rubber spikes on,” Kotak mentioned, including that the curators additionally want to grasp that they’re speaking to ‘highly skilled and intelligent people’.
“For example, if you go to the ground now where we practised, you won’t even see any spike marks on the surface or the outfield. We ensure that the ground should not get damaged, and it all comes from the head coach. So, you can be protective, but not arrogant. Ultimately, it’s a cricket pitch and not an antique that is 200 years old and can be broken,” Kotak added.
Fortis later advised the media that Gambhir was ‘a bit tetchy’ and refused to enter the small print. “You saw what happened,” Fortis mentioned.
After the incident, Gambhir returned to supervise the nets session and had discussions with the BCCI chairman of the choice committee, Ajit Agarkar.
India has determined to not lodge any official criticism.
