Gambhir and Tiwary fined for on-field altercation

This time as the captain of Delhi in the Ranji Trophy match against West Bengal, he almost came to blows with another discard and his counterpart Manoj Tiwary at the Feroz Shah Kotla here on Saturday.

Gambhir with his fists raised charged towards Tiwary, who was also not ready to back down. However, Srikanth, who was trying to pacify Gambhir was pushed by the Delhi skipper. According to cricket laws, touching umpire is a grave offence and could potentially invite a ban.

Tiwary, who was wearing a cap, asked for his helmet as soon as he realised pacer Sumit Narwal will come on from the other end.

“I have huge respect for Gautam Gambhir for whatever he has done for the country but today he crossed the limit with his comments”. He made personal comments. I was really shocked to hear that. “I had kept my helmet beside the boundary rope as it has become wet and I wanted to dry it. That was about it and everyone saw I was not the first one to react”. He tried to hit but could not. “At which point I came in and told him what I thought about his demeanour”. “All of you have seen what happened”, he said. Gautan Gambhir simply said, “nothing happened boss”.

“Usually a few things happen on the ground in the heat of a moment and by the end of the day after the game is over they always make up and they say sorry and the matter finishes there”. “I was most surprised that certain sections of the media have reported that I pushed an on-field umpire during third day’s play of Delhi-Bengal Ranji trophy game”.

Bengal left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha joined the attempts to dismiss the incident by saying “this has not happened on the cricket field for the first time”. And Tiwary retorted, “Shaam kya abhi bahar chal (why wait till evening, let’s go out and settle it now)”. Gambhir, who has a history of getting on the wrong side of the code of conduct for players, escaped with a fine of 70 per cent of his match fee, while Tiwary was docked 40 per cent. DDCA vice-president Chetan Chauhan, too, preferred not to look too much into the incident. Manoj was then seen shouting at Gambhir, saying: “Did I tell you anything?” Gautam Gambhir has been penalised 70 percent of his match fees. “There is no further hearing and no match ban has been imposed on either of them”, Bengal team manager Sameer Dasgupta said.