LONDON: India head coach Gautam Gambhir had a verbal spat with pitch curator Lee Fortis of the Oval Cricket ground two days ahead of the fifth and final Test here on Tuesday. Apparently unhappy with the instruction being given by the ground staff, Gambhir, visibly upset, was seen having animated discussions with the chief curator and was even heard saying, "You don't tell us what to do."
It was learnt that the ground staff has even threatened to lodge a complaint against Gambhir to which the latter responded saying, "You can do whatever you like." Notably, India reached London on Monday evening following a brilliant draw against England in Manchester a day before. Shubman Gill and Co are still trailing 1-2 in the series and need to win the match if they wish to share honours with the hosts in the five-match rubber.
A few of the Indian team members along with Gambhir, batting coach Sitanshu Kotak and bowling coach Morne Morkel reached the venue in the morning for the optional nets. Bowlers were marking their respective run-ups when Gambhir allegedly had a heated exchange with Fortis. It escalated soon enough and Kotak had to intervene and separate the duo.
Kotak later told the journalists during the press conference that it all started when they went to have a look at the pitch. "When we went to see the wicket, coaches were standing there and then he (curator) sent a man asking us to stay two-and-a-half-metre away from the wicket, which was little surprising because on a cricket wicket, which is hosting five-day match a day after and we were standing there wearing joggers. So that was a little awkward," Kotak said.
The batting coach was also asked whether the ugly exchange was a result of pressure Gambhir feeling as the series has been long, heated and combustible at times but he responded in negative. "I don't think so. I think it's been a very, very competitive series and both the teams, to be fair to England also, played really well. We know that the first Test also and the Lord's Test also could have gone either way. So, all the Test matches went to the fifth day. So, it's been an absolutely brilliant Test series so far. But no, Gautam is someone I don't think...I've never seen him under pressure in our playing days to now. So, definitely not under pressure. But, yeah, we wish that the Lord's game, we could have won and gone 2-1 up. And all that, we all think, but that's not pressure. That's just going back and thinking that could we have done something different? But that's normal, nothing about pressure or taking pressure or anything like that."
He, however, said in his long cricketing and coaching career, he has never seen curators behaving like that. "I felt we were just standing there looking at the wicket and one of the ground staff came there and told us to stay 2.5 metre away from the surface, in my cricketing career I have never seen anybody saying that because I don't know literally he was saying to the head coach to go outside the rope and see the wicket. Brushing the shoes or somebody is trying to put something in the wicket or somebody wearing spikes, the curator feels that it is fine but it was a very strange way of saying you go and stand two and a half metres away from here. So, I think that is where it started because Gautam is someone who does not even say unnecessary things."
The India support staff also cited an incident where the curator prevented one of his colleagues from bringing a cooling box into the ground. "When one of the support staff was bringing the cooling box there, still he was sitting on the roller, he shouted and told him not to take it there. Now the weight of that cooling box will be 10 kilos according to me. It will not be more than that. So, it is good to be a little possessive and it is also good to be protective, but not that much. So, then Gautam just said that do not talk to the support staff like this, because the support staff, we all come under the head coach. Any head coach will say that you cannot shout from there and say this. So, it was very normal. Then he came there and he started talking. I think it all started from the time when we were watching the wicket. And if you want me to be very honest, before coming to the Oval, most of the team knows that the curator is not the easiest person to get on with."
Most of the players including Gill, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, previous match centurions Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar and KL Rahul skipped the nets. Wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel, fit-again Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, N Jagadeeshan, who replaced Rishabh Pant in the squad, Abhimanyu Easwaran were among the players who attended the session.
