Daily Times

NEW DELHI – Indian batsman Gautam Gambhir opened up about his infamous feud with Pakistani wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal in the 2010 Asia Cup match held in Dambulla, Sri Lanka, Indian media reported on Sunday.

Gambhir, who was previously involved in several on-field feuds, played down the incident during a talk show hosted by comedian Vikram Sathaye. “It happened in the heat of the moment. When India and Pakistan play each other then obviously it is a tense game,” he said.

The southpaw blamed the TV network for airing the incident in the first place. “Whatever arguments happened between us were during the drinks break. However, instead of showing advertisements during the break, the channel opted to show our heated arguments,” he added.

The incident occurred after Kamran Akmal claimed a caught behind of Gambhir only for the umpire to turn it down. Angered by the appeal, Gambhir walked straight up to Akmal during the drinks break and the duo had an ugly confrontation. On-field umpires and Indian skipper MS Dhoni had to intervene to calm things down.

When asked the main reason behind the argument, the 34 year-old stated that it was wrong of Kamran to appeal since the ball didn’t touch the bat at all. “I had tried to play [the shot] and missed it fully. He appealed in such a way that he thought that the ball had hit the bat,” he said.

“Then I told him that there was 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,” he added. Gambhir later claimed that the man of the match award for his score of 83 off 97 deliveries before being bowled by Saeed Ajmal.

India won the match and subsequently won the tournament as well, beating hosts Sri Lanka in the final.