Virat Kohli and Star Sports Slammed by Sunil Gavaskar: 'We played a bit of cricket, we don't have agendas'

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Virat Kohli and Star Sports were slammed by Sunil Gavaskar ahead of the RCB vs GT match on Saturday, May 3. Gavaskar slammed Kohli for his remarks on commentators criticising his strike rate and Star Sports for repeatedly showing that clip.

The former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) captain recently slammed the commentators for criticising his T20 strike rate. The star batter took a dig at the commentators by saying that they haven't been in his position, and that it was easy to sit and criticise from the box.

The post-match interview went viral, and became a topic of discussion. Broadcasters Star Sports played the interview several times, and that also irked the former India great.

Gavaskar has come down hard at Virat Kohli and Star Sports. Gavaskar, who is himself an expert for Star Sports, said Kohli's strike was questionable as an opener some time ago. He also reminded Star Sports that commentators being slammed by Kohli were their own.

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“Commentators questioned only when his strike rate was 118. I’m not too sure. I don’t watch too many matches, so I don’t know what the other commentators have said otherwise. But if you come and open and then have a strike of 118 when you get out in the 14th or the 15th over, I mean, if you want applause for that, that’s a little bit different. That’s different,” said Gavaskar before the IPL 2024 match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Gujarat Titans on Saturday, May 4,

“All these guys talk about, 'oh we don’t care about outside noise’. Accha! Then why are you replying to any outside noise or whatever it is. We all played a bit of cricket, not a lot of cricket. We don’t have agendas. We speak about what we see. We don’t necessarily have any likes and dislikes. Even if we have likes and dislikes, we actually speak on what is happening,” said Gavaskar.

“I hope Star Sports realises that when that clip is shown, questioning the critics, the critics are your own commentators. For you to show the person belittling your own commentators, I’m not sure that’s a great thing. You need to realise you have shown it enough times, everybody’s got the message. I would be very disappointed if you show it once more," he added.

What had Virat Kohli said?

“All the people who talk about strike rates and me not playing spin well are the ones talking about this stuff. For me, it’s about winning games for the team and there’s a reason why you’ve done it for 15 years, you’ve done this day in and day out, you’ve won games for your teams,” Kohli said after scoring unbeaten 70 off 44 versus GT on Sunday, April 28.

“I’m not quite sure if you haven’t been in that situation yourself, to sit and talk about the game from the box. For me, people can talk about their assumptions day in and day out, but those who have done (it) day in and day out, they know what’s happening and it’s a kind of muscle memory for me now,” he had added.