Gautam Gambhir, who is currently working as a BJP Member of Parliament (MP), will be reuniting with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to serve as the mentor of the franchise with which he won two IPL titles. He spent two seasons as the mentor of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).
In an interview with ANI's Smita Prakash and Ishaan Prakash on YouTube, recorded in a podcast format, Gambhir talked about a lot of things, including the 2014 season with KKR, where he served as the captain of the team and helped them win their second IPL trophy.
He also touched on why India didn't win the 2023 World Cup, claiming that players' PR works against the team.
The Sporting News covers all the major quotes from Gambhir's podcast with ANI.
On dropping himself in IPL 2014
Gambhir described his relationship with Shah Rukh Khan, KKR's owner, and said that they barely talked about cricket during his seven seasons with KKR, stating that he supported him unconditionally during tough times.
"You won't believe this. In my seven years of captaincy [with KKR], he had not spoken to me for seven minutes about cricket. In 2014, in Abu Dhabi, we started the IPL where I scored three ducks in a row. Fourth game I got one run. We had lost four games out of the first five, and I had scored just 1 run in four games. We were coming back. We were staying at The Ritz-Carlton, Abu Dhabi. So we were standing in the lobby, we had lost that game [that day]. So he took me on the side. He said, 'I wanna sit with you. What's happening? Everything fine?' No cricket, nothing. I said, 'I'm thinking of dropping myself.' He said, 'What?' I said, 'I am thinking of dropping myself. I don't think I deserve to be a part of the playing XI.' He said, 'Till you are there, and you can be there till you want to be there, you are not dropping yourself. You will play. You have to promise me that. Till you are here, you will play every game.' I came back and I got three or four half-centuries in a row. We won in 2014. That was my only and only cricket conversation with him in my captaincy with KKR in seven years."
On his gesture during the Asia Cup
In an Asia Cup match earlier this year, Gambhir showed a middle finger to a section of the crowd, with media claiming that he reacted to Virat Kohli slogans. However, he provided a clarification.
"If I am going there and some fans point out and say 'Hindustan Murdabad' and they were told once by the security to not do it...in the heat of the moment, I accept I made a wrong gesture and sometimes when you hear these things you react. Everyone reacts differently; everyone has a different mindset. If someone doesn't want to listen then you react and I am accepting that I shouldn't have made that gesture. Some journalists showed only the reaction. It was also said that it was an India-Pakistan match but it wasn't, there was no clarification. You [media] showed only one reaction but you didn't move on from the IPL incident; you want to continue it. It was said that an individual name was being chanted and that is why I reacted that way. People can chant anyone's name, I don't care, as I said, I don't take fights personally. But yeah, when it comes to someone abusing my nation, I have the right to react anyway. I want probably in a more sensible way but things that have been written and spoken were wrong."
On media becoming a "PR machinery"
Gambhir also expressed his opinions of broadcasters becoming a particular player or players' "PR agent", which undeservingly takes away the attention from the other players.
"It's been a long time since India won a World Cup and the bitter truth is our media and importantly the social media, if they become a PR machinery for certain individuals then you will never get the result. Every member of the squad works hard to represent India, and if a broadcaster becomes a PR machinery of 1-2 players then the other members of the squad won't be able to speak out openly. One of the biggest crimes is to give one's credit to someone else. Every player deserves to get their credits. Broadcaster can never be a PR machinery, they need to be fair to everyone sitting in that dressing room cause everyone works hard. They need to value equally and not only one or two individuals. Social media decides who should get credits or not and this is not right. Till the time we look at all the members of the squad equally."
On the Naveen ul-Haq and Virat Kohli controversy in IPL
Gambhir, who was the Lucknow Super Giants mentor, was asked about the altercation between Afghanistan's Naveen ul-Haq and Virat Kohli, and his involvement in the feud after the game as he defended Naveen.
"As a mentor, no one can come and walk over my players. I have got a very different belief. Till the time the game was on, I had no right to interfere but once the game was over if someone still gets into a heated argument with my players, I have all the right to defend them."
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