Seriously. Give it up for Gautam Gambhir — the lad has cojones.
A day after being reported by IPL Commissioner Lalit K Modi and promptly reprimanded by the IPL’s hanging judge, Gambhir hits back with the frankest statement by an Indian cricketer I’ve seen till date.
I said what I said and I stand by it. But it cuts both ways. For instance, people said we (Delhi) gave an ordinary performance against Mumbai and we did. But we didn’t overreact or fuss about what anyone said. We picked ourselves up and raised the bar.
I don’t believe in saying things I don’t mean. If you’re looking for platitudes or banal gestures, I don’t think you’ll get that from me. I don’t mean to sound arrogant, I’m not, but I also can’t be a hypocrite.
You go, Gauti. And from all of us who have had it up to here with the predigested pap that cricketers routinely serve up to the media and the public — please don’t change.
Smoke Signals 
i may not accept what u said is right but i will defend till death ur right to say it
You rock gautam gambhir. You are my most favorite cricketer and will always be. I love your personality and don’t ever change. You are a great human being and what you said was absolutely true. Who are they to tell you what to speak and what to not? Everyone has their own views and opinions. Keep smiling and my greetings and good wishes are always with you.
“except 4 yusuf they were pretty ordinary”,s he was generous 2 say pretty ordinary.and critics shld understand that he spoke on their batting performance that match.and i think he was exactly right.c’on gauti… u and viru have always had our support and will have it too.well done;WISHES 2 win IPL3.
Wonder what Ravi “Lalit Modi is the Moses of Indian Cricket” Shastri has to say about this.
Unfortunately it has also occured to me that this article was published at hindustantimes.com… so while I want to applaud Gambhir, a part of me thinks maybe it was some Ghost writer.
Then again a part of me thinks maybe it WAS Gambhir, who wrote it in the knowledge that should there be a backlash, he could blame it on a ghost!
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Full marks to Gautam for standing up against Mr Modi.
But do you really agree with the implication that people who haven’t played the sport don’t have opinions that matter?
Ya, I too wonder that every time someone goes behind the “Couldn’t care about someone who hasn’t even played one match” argument. Its not so immediately obvious to me why someone who has not played a sport may not necessarily be qualified to make criticism about it, constructive or otherwise, and many names in different sports come to mind who could easily counter the argument.
No I don’t. But here’s the thing — it is up to each individual to decide what inputs he wants to listen to and take on board. If as a journalist I insist only on learning from, listening to, those who have bylines, that is just me. Could be wrong, could be right — from experience, I’ve learnt more from reader feedback than from fellow journalists. That said, there is no right and wrong way to do this — Gauti has his way, and good luck to him. Thing though is, the key issue is that he has the right to speak what he thinks, and reprimanding him for doing that was a wrong move. I appreciate that he had the gumption to stand up to that.
Anyone thinks its Sehwag effect rubbing off on Gauti?
You go dude, I’ve always been a fan of yours (and Sehwag, of course)
Honesty and bluntness is all fine when you are talking about yourself or your team, but to publicly berate the other team or its players is not cricket.
Dil pe mat le yaar … haaath main le (newspaper). 😛 Before reading the comments secion, I thought he targeted Shilpa. Wow, now that I know it was directed towards Lalit Modi, I praise and admire you even more Lord Gauti.
Sorry, where did he berate anyone? He was asked a question: how do you rate the Royals, and what plans did you make. He said DD planned to counter Pathan, and that RR had no other player he needed to worry about. Where does “berate” come into it? He did not abuse, he did not indulge in name calling, as a captain he gave his assessment of the opposition.
Really proud of Gauti…his talent, hard work, the attitude that makes him hold his own amongst elite company in the Indian cricket team, and an outspoken nature similar to his mate Viru.
There was nothing wrong with his original statement in the first place “Except for Yusuf Pathan, the other guys were pretty ordinary”. He didn’t even say “they are an ordinary team” like Viru against Bangladesh, but merely stated the fact that Pathan apart, the rest “WERE” ordinary, on that day.
That was enough for Modi, Shilpa & Co to take the cudgels. What the heck do they know about playing the game? Its time cricketers of the stature of Gauti, who has respect of fans across the country, tell Modi & co that they won’t be bullied!
Cheers!
Vasu
More pertinently, I can’t be expected to get all worked up about comments made by people who have never picked up a cricket bat in their life.
Man, Gambhir has officially become the first man to have Lalit Modi PWNED.
I felt it was seriously kool for Gauti to actually stand by his comments, but, when I read that column, man….
If it were upto me, Gambhir would be the vice-captain of India RIGHT NOW!
Oh totally — the fun part of that response was the way he phrased it to include Modi in its ambit. Interestingly, the IPL boss has not been able to respond — though GG had publicly questioned his reprimand.
ah… hadn’t seen that you had put up the post.
something to the delhi air apart from pollution – first sehwag took on the DDCA, then Gauti takes an even bolder stand!
Unreserved applause for the man – I admire him even more than I did earlier.
I’m not sure I agree with you that players should start being more honest and open with the press. The press has a wonderful track record of misrepresenting anything said in public, and feeding it to the public laced in innuendo. The only way to avoid that is for the players to give the press nothing at all worth printing, because this hits the press where it hurts the most.
I have no respect for the press (in India or America, the two places I have lived). I understand that there might be correspondents who genuinely want to report on the games, but they are few and far between.
“More pertinently, I can’t be expected to get all worked up about comments made by people who have never picked up a cricket bat in their life.” – this is the MOST important statement he made..we all know whom he is hinting at…
good job Gauti..we are with you