Ashish Ranjan
One of the rivalries of the IPL 2023 season was between RCB and LSG. After the match, Virat Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq were embroiled in an altercation with LSG’s coach Gautam Gambhir. They were all fined for violating the IPL’s code of conduct. As a consequence, Kohli and Gambhir were fined 100% of their match fees, while Naveen was fined 50%.
Recently, Naveen clarified the sequence of events that occurred during the customary post-match handshakes, attributing the altercation to Kohli. In addition, the child from Afghanistan stated that he had no altercation with anyone during the match. Only when Kohli held his hand during the post-match handshake between the two teams did he react.
“He should not have said all of those things during and after the game. I did not initiate the conflict. As we were grasping hands after the game, Virat Kohli initiated a fight. “When you look at the fines, you will know who started the fight,” he said in an interview with BBC Pashto.
“I just want to clarify that I don’t belittle people in general, and if I did, I would only say it to batters while bowling because I am a bowler. During that match, I uttered not a single word. “I did not insult anybody,” Haq continued.
“Players who were present are aware of how I handled the circumstance. I never lost my composure while batting or following the game. What I did following the game is visible to everyone. “We were just shaking hands when he (Kohli) grabbed my hand with force, and as a human being, I reacted,” the Afghan pacer explained.
I know how to silence critics: Naveen-ul-Haq
After the incident, Naveen-ul-Haq was heavily criticized on social media and in the stadiums during his matches. The adolescent stated that he did not care about the trolls because he was more focused on letting his performance speak for itself.
“It had no effect on me whatsoever. I am able to silence detractors. I didn’t have to give it back to the 80,000 people because I was concentrating on my cricket, believing in my skills, and wanting my performance to speak for itself,” he said.
The Afghan pacer continued by recalling the supporters, and social media was ablaze following the occurrence. Despite this, he resolved to continue playing cricket because all of his international success has been the result of hard work.
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However, he did not hold back when he added that it was the opposition’s comments about him and the entire saga that compelled him to deal with it in his own manner and clear the air about his social media. The most infamous was the ‘consuming mangoes’ story that Haq posted on his Instagram account to mock his opponents.
“I never intended to bring the matter up on social media or any other platform. But when the opposition began saying negative things on social media, I lost control. “I never took anyone’s name; I was simply enjoying my mangoes,” Haq concluded.
