IPL 2023 | Nothing personal between me and Virat Kohli, clarifies Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir recently opened up about his relationship with Virat Kohli revealing that their arguments stay on the field only and there is nothing personal. He also added that India’s obsession with the individuals is the reason why they have not won ICC trophies for a long time.
Gautam Gambhir is known to be a man of few words but when he speaks, he often gives hard-hitting opinions and has been involved in on-field and off-field altercations on multiple occasions as a result. His recent verbal spat was in the game between Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore with Virat Kohli as the duo was seen exchanging words.
After a few days of the incident occurred in the IPL 2023, Gambhir has now voiced his opinion over the incident saying the argument is on the field only and there is nothing personal.
“My relationship with MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli are the same. If there is an argument between us, it stays only on the field, not off the field. There’s nothing personal. They want to win as much as I do,” he said in an interview with News 18.
Gambhir played an important role for India in the final of the T20 World Cup 2007 and ODI World Cup 2011 scoring half-centuries in both matches. The left-handed batter has spoken about how individuals get credit despite the involvement of a team effort in a win in the past and he repeated the same once again. Gambhir opined that India’s obsession with the individuals is the reason for not winning an ICC title for a long time.
“Our country is not a team-obsessed one but rather an individual-obsessed one. We think of certain individuals to be bigger than the team. In other countries like England, New Zealand and Australia the team is greater than any individual. And the stakeholders of Indian cricket, from broadcasters to media, have unfortunately been reduced to PR agencies. They’ll show just 3 people the whole day. If you have made a 50 and i have also made a 50, if you keep showing one person, everyone will think that he is the only star. The other person will be termed underrated,” he added.
“Who makes a player underrated? The broadcasters do, the experts do and social media does. If you talk about just one player’s performance, the other will be automatically underrated. This obsession with individuals is the reason why India have not won any major ICC trophy for a long time.”