Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy: Boiling over

training session two days before the series-deciding fifth Test against England became a sideshow as head coach Gautam Gambhir got involved in a heated verbal spat with The Oval’s chief curator Lee Fortis who allegedly asked the visiting team’s support staff to stand 2.5 metres from the pitch.

Gambhir was on Tuesday heard telling Fortis “you don’t tell any of us what we need to do, you have no right to tell us, you are just a groundsman nothing beyond” while pointing fingers at the

chief curator. In response, Fortis was heard saying “I will have to report this.”

In the presence of 10 squad members minus captain Shubman Gill, the training session in the field of play was going on as usual until Gambhir blasted Fortis, who is not the “easiest person to work with” despite winning ECB’s best multi-day pitches award for the last three years.

India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak tried to douse the fire by taking Fortis away from Gambhir, who was visibly angry with the chief curator. Later, Kotak explained what really happened in the middle.

“When we went to take a look at the wicket, the coaches were there, someone came to us and said ‘stand 2.5 metres away’, which was surprising. Day after, there is a Test match, and we had our joggers on not spikes so it felt a bit awkward. I have never seen anything like that in my life. The Indian players had told me that he is not the easiest person to work with. Now you all know. It is okay to be protective and possessive about this pitch but not to this extent,” said Kotak.

While the drama was unfolding, the travelling Indian media approached Fortis for his thoughts on the incident but he did not have much to say.

“He is a bit tetchy, it is a big game this week. You saw what he was like this morning. You have to ask him (what happened),” Fortis said.

Kotak hinted the situation may have slipped out of control due to the tone of communication.

“Curators also need to understand that the people they are talking to are highly skilled and intelligent. So for example if you go now to where we practised, you won’t even see any markings from the spikes. We don’t want the ground to get damaged. …but end of the day it’s a cricket pitch, it’s not an antique,” Kotak said.

With England not scheduled to train on the day, head coach Brendon McCullum and ECB managing director Rob Key came to see the pitch in casual clothes but no instructions were issued to them from The Oval groundstaff, Kotak said.

Kotak said what made the situation worse was that Fortis shouted at one member of the Indian team support staff to not take the cooling box near the main square. Kotak also ruled out filing any complaint with the ECB over the incident.

“So, then Gautam just said that do not talk to the support staff like this. So, it was very normal. No, I do not think there is any point in complaining,” Kotak said.

Surrey, the county that owns the stadium, did not give an official statement on the altercation but sources said the curator was only trying to protect the main square with the ground hosting more than 60 days of cricket in a season.