'Such incidents mustn't happen again'NEW DELHI: Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has called for stricter action like match suspension, instead of heavy fines, for RCB batter Virat Kohli and Lucknow Super Giants mentor Gautam Gambhir following their
very aggressive war of words, which stopped just short of an all-out brawl, following an IPL game in Lucknow. Both Kohli and Gambhir have been fined 100% of their match fee but Gavaskar questioned the efficacy of such steep fines and compared the situation to the Sreesanth-Harbhajan 'Slapgate' incident in the IPL.
Gavaskar told Star Sports, "My point, is do something which will make sure these things don't happen again. If it has to, you know, like it happened with Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth 10 years ago, that 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."
Gavaskar said, "What exactly is a 100 per cent match fee? If it is Kohli, who is on maybe Rs 17 crore for RCB, which means Rs 17 crore for a possible 16 matches, including the semifinals, and finals (sic). So you are talking about a crore of rupees.
"Is he going to be fined ?1 crore and more? 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 are hoping that this is not repeated because it's such a stiff fine, such a stiff punishment.
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"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 that little bit extra," the former opener said.