Gavaskar Stirs Controversy With Anushka Remark During Commentary

Sunil Gavaskar’s comments during the IPL broadcast of Thursday’s match between Royals Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab have landed the Indian cricketing legend in a bit of a soup.

In an attempt to criticise Virat Kohli’s form and preparation for the IPL, Gavaskar made a comment about how, during lockdown, Kohli was only spotted playing cricket with his wife Anushka, referring to a video that went viral in May where the couple were seen playing a friendly game of cricket on the rooftop of their apartment in Mumbai.

Here is the said video clip, where Gavaskar was part of the Hindi commentary team:

And here’s what he said, in exactly those many words:

“Aur woh chahte hain ki jitni practice karein usi se voh behtar ban sakte hain, voh jaante hain (He knows that he can get better only through a lot of practice and training).

Ab jab lockdown tha toh sirf Anushka ki bowling ki practice ki unhone, voh video dekhi, usse toh kuch nahi banna hai (When there was lockdown, he could practice only on Anushka’s bowling, but that’s not going to help him.)“

Aakash Chopra then joins in:

“Unke apartment mein voh practice kar rahe the, voh utni bhi privacy nahi hai, saath wali building se kisi ne uska bhi video le liya (He was practising in his apartment, and they are not allowed that much privacy also, someone from adjacent building took a video of that too).

Gavaskar & Online Trolling Slammed

The outrage following Gavaskar’s comments was on two fronts – firstly, why did the senior cricketing legend feel the need to drag Kohli’s wife’s name while talking about how much players had trained during lockdown and the second was on a baseless tweet that went viral.

Why Gavaskar needed to, once again, drag Sharma into a statement about her husband, is a question he needs to answer. However, the criticism he faced for his comments having a double meaning has subsided after the video clip of the commentary started getting shared on social media.

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