India came back from a seemingly hopeless situation to win the Oval Test and draw the five-match series against England 2-2. It marked the end of a series that was filled with incidents. While most of it happened on the field, India head coach Gautam Gambhir’s argument with Oval pitch curator Lee Fortis before the start of the fifth Test was easily the most prominent off-field flare-up over the course of the series.
Gambhir firing angry words at Fortis is what went viral first and the Indian head coach received some criticism for his choice of words to describe the latter’s profession. However, details later emerged about what it is that irked Gambhir so much and that led to Fortis being accused of favouring England at best and having a colonial mindset towards the Indians at worst. The track that Fortis and his ground staff prepared, and maintained admirably in a Test that was frequently interrupted by rain, coughed up a thriller, though, with India winning it by just six runs – their lowest margin of victory by runs in Test cricket.
“Well, I was never the villain, I was made into one,” Fortis is quoted as saying by PTI. “Hope you guys enjoyed the show and the atmosphere was like the IPL. It was a great game.”
Indian head coaches Gautam Gambhir and Sitanshu Kotak were asked by Fortis, through a messenger, to stay 2.5 metres away from the playing surface. He also shouted at the Indian support staff to not take a ‘cooler’ to the ground.
Batting coach Kotak, who was close to the action and played the pacifier when an animated Gambhir was talking to Fortis, gave details about the net session altercation.
“When we went to see the pitch, we were asked by someone to keep a 2.5-metre distance. This was surprising. The Test would be in a few days and we were wearing joggers. So it felt a bit odd. We all have been on the ground enough, we have played so much cricket. Curators are possessive about the ground and the square but they need to understand that they are speaking to highly skilled and intelligent people.” Kotak said.
