IPL 2023: Sunil Gavaskar wants stricter punishment for Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir

Legendary batsman and former India captain, Sunil Gavaskar has called for stricter actions against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) star batter, Virat Kohli and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) mentor, Gautam Gambhir during the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL).

Though BCCI has sanctioned hefty fines against Kohli and Gambhir, Gavaskar questioned if those fines were enough to guarantee such a thing will never happen in the future.

“Well, I saw the visuals only a while ago as I did not see that match live. These things never look good. What exactly is a 100 per cent match fee? If it is Kohli, who is on maybe Rs 17 crore for RCB, it means Rs 17 crore for a possible 16 matches including the semi-finals and final. So you are talking about a crore. Is he going to be fined Rs 1 crore and more? Well, that is a very, very stiff fine,” Gavaskar said.

“I don’t know what Gambhir’s situation is. They should ensure that this is not repeated. You are hoping that this is not repeated because it’s such a stiff fine, such a stiff punishment. You want to play it hard, play it competitively. During the time that we played, there was a bit of banter, but there was none of this aggression that we see now. A lot of it has got to do with the fact that everything is on television too. Because of the fact that you are on television, you tend to do maybe just that little bit extra which is not at all good for the game,” the former India captain added.