Gautam Gambhir opens up about feud with Kamran Akmal

Tempers are bound to flare when two arch rivals clash against each other and India-Pakistan cricket matches have always been full of high-voltage drama and action. The tempestuous Gautam Gambhir who had been involved in many such on-field feuds, recently spoke about his infamous on-field face-off with Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal during an Asia Cup match in 2010.

The southpaw recalled the incident when Pakistan keeper Akmal claimed a caught behind of Gambhir only for the umpire to turn it down. Bemused by the appeal, an angry Gambhir walked straight up to Akmal during the drinks break and the two had an ugly confrontation. On-field umpires and Indian skipper MS Dhoni, who was batting alongside Gambhir, had to intervene and calm the things down.

Recently, during a chat show hosted by cricket comedian Vikram Sathaye, the southpaw tried to play down the incident, “It happened in the heat of the moment. When India and Pakistan play each other then obviously it is a tense game.

“Good or a bad thing you can say but whatever arguments happened between us was during the drinks break. Instead of showing advertisements during the break Neo channel opted to show our heated arguments.”

When asked the main reason behind the argument he replied, “I had tried to play and missed it fully. He appealed in such a way that he thought that the ball hit the bat. Then I told him that there is no point in appealing because nothing like that happened, we just got into a heated argument and then it just got from bad to worse.”

I would never have played World Cup

Gambhir also shared an interesting story involving him and former India coach Gary Kirsten with whom he shared a great rapport. Gambhir said that the South African used to call him a banker and he also revealed the reason behind it.

“Gary used to call me a banker because he thought we both had some similarities between each other. He used to say me that my role in the Indian team is as similar as the role he had played for South Africa. He used to say that my job was to accumulate as many runs I can do for the team.”

The man who scored those crucial 97 runs in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup final to help India lift the coveted trophy after 28 years, also recalled another incident when Kirsten told him to play another game as Gambhir considered dropping himself from the side because of poor form.

He also admitted the fact that had he not been influenced by Gary to play that game he would have missed the 2011 World Cup.

Gambhir said, “I played the next match where I scored 50 odd runs and then I played the third test match in which I scored some about 70 runs. After that, I was made captain for five one-day series against New Zealand and I scored two centuries in a series and ended up winning Man of the Series award.

“After that, we went to South Africa and I scored four half-centuries in two test match series and looking at my form I was included in World Cup squad. If Gary opted to drop me from next match I would never have played World Cup.’’

The special thing

Gambhir, who is currently leading the Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2016, spoke about the time when he came back strongly in the IPL 2014 after registering three consecutive ducks in the first-half of that tournament in UAE.

He said, “Obviously it would be a nightmare for any batsman specially being the captain of the side and scoring one run in four games is very tough.”

But the performance of the team and Gambhir drastically improved once the tournament returned to India. The skipper registered five fifties in a row and his team ended up winning the tournament for the second time.

Gambhir sounded reminiscent recalling that tumultuous phase saying, “One special thing happened at that time is my daughter Aazeen was born. As soon as we came back from UAE I straight went to the hospital. The next morning I had a flight at 9’o clock to Ranchi.

“I could have missed that match if I missed that flight but I went and scored consecutive half-centuries in each match to win the tournament for my daughter.”