IPL 2023: Virat Kohli vs Gautam Gambhir - Sunil Gavaskar calls for suspension over fines

The 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) has already seen some intriguing and controversial moments. As for the latter, it happened on Monday after Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) triumph over Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). RCB opener Virat Kohli and LSG mentor Gautam Gambhir got into a heated verbal spat.

As their teammates separated the two, the IPL fined both individuals 100% of their match fees. Also, fans were reminded of the tensions between the two ten years back when they had nearly collided in an RCB and former two-time champion Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) encounter. However, legendary former Indian Little Master Sunil Gavaskar feels that fining is inadequate and that the involved parties should have been suspended.

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Interacting with Star Sports, Gavaskar said, "My point is to do something to ensure these things don't happen again. If it has to, as it happened with Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth 10 years ago, you have to ask them to maybe step aside for a couple of matches. Make sure you do something that ensures that these things don't happen and also something that will hurt the team."

"What exactly is a 100 per cent match fee? If it is Kohli, who is on maybe ₹17 crore for RCB, which means ₹17 crore for a possible 16 matches, including the semifinals and finals. So, you are talking about a crore of rupees. Is he going to be fined ₹1 crore and more?" he added.

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"Well, that's a very, very stiff fine. I don't know what Gambhir's situation is. They should ensure that this is not repeated. You hope this is not repeated because it's a stiff fine and punishment. A lot of it has got to do with the fact that everything is on TV. Because you are on TV, you tend to do maybe just a little extra," concluded Gavaskar.