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Tempers flared at The Oval on Tuesday as India head coach Gautam Gambhir got into a heated exchange with the venue’s chief pitch curator, Lee Fortis.
The incident happened midway through India’s optional training session when Gambhir and the other coaching staff walked up to the centre wicket to have a closer look at the surface.
A few minutes prior, England coach Brendon McCullum and Rob Key, the Managing Director of the men’s team, had inspected the surface. According to India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak, who was with Gambhir during the incident, the curator sternly asked the Indian staff to stay two-and-a-half metres away from the surface, which came as a surprise to them.
Things got ugly a few moments later when the support staff were bringing an ice box to the ground. “He yelled at the support staff that we should not go near the square. He said something that irked the head coach,” Kotak said.
Fortis, an experienced curator, was seen arguing with the visibly upset Indian coach. As India’s players and the support staff gathered around Gambhir, he could be heard telling Fortis, “You can’t tell us what to do; you are just a groundsman and nothing beyond.”
Kotak had to step in and take Fortis aside. As the news broke out, members of the Indian contingent and the ECB officials rushed to the scene, and there were rounds of discussions, with Kotak joining them as well.
“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),” Kotak said, adding: “Even before coming to the Oval, we all knew that this curator is not the easiest person to deal with.”
According to Kotak, the support staff was just assessing the surface 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 said, adding that the curators also need to understand that they are talking to ‘highly skilled and intelligent people’.
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“For example, if you go on the ground now where we practised, you won’t even see spike marks on the surface or the outfield. We ensure that the ground does 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…”
Fortis later told the media that Gambhir was ‘a bit tetchy’ and refused to reveal further, saying, “You saw what happened.” After the incident, Gambhir returned to oversee the nets session and had discussions with the BCCI’s chairman of the selection committee Ajit Agarkar.
India has decided not to lodge any official complaint.
