IPL 8: ‘You want people to be aggressive and that is fine’
Kolkata: Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir defended under-fire opener Robin Uthappa's alleged scuffle with Royal Challengers Bangalore youngster Sarfaraz Khan, saying that such things "happen" during a high intensity cricket tournament like the Indian Premier League.
Read: KKR cricketer allegedly holds RCB player 'by the collar', match referee denies complaint of scuffle
"There's nothing wrong in it. You want people to be aggressive and that is fine. I've been very aggressive on the field as well. When you go out there to play and win a game, you got to be aggressive," India discard told the reporters during a promotional event when asked about the Uthappa incident.
The 33-year-old left-hander further urged the media not to blow this out of proportion and move on. "It's important for the media not to blow this out of proportion. These things happen. You should leave it there. Sometimes the media blows it out of proportion," the two-time IPL winning KKR skipper said.
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Incidentally, IPL match referee Javagal Srinath claimed that he was "not aware of any such incident" and reportedly denied receiving any complaint from RCB after their 96-run win in the IPL T20 match on Saturday.
"Nothing of that sort has happened. I've not received any complaint," Srinath, who was the Match Referee of the KKR-RCB match had claimed. A Kolkata Knight Riders official also rubbished the reports and said, "We've not heard anything about it."
According to reports, KKR opener Uthappa, who had scores of 35 and 9 in two matches, allegedly had an altercation with the 17-year-old RCB recruit from Mumbai and went on to the extent of allegedly "holding him by the collar".
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The incident is said to have happened behind the sightscreen as RCB players AB de Villiers and Ashok Dinda rushed to the rescue of their fellow player. Later at night, Srinath reportedly summoned Uthappa and KKR CEO Venky Mysore, with RCB's de Villiers as they attended the meeting. Though it is learnt that Uthappa apologised for his behaviour but Srinath denied having any knowledge of the incident.
