INDIA TOUR OF ENGLAND, 2025
The incident happened during the Indian team’s first training session at the Oval. © Getty
India’s first practice session ahead of the fifth Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy began with an unexpected flashpoint – a heated on-field altercation between head coach Gautam Gambhir and The Oval’s head groundsman, Lee Fortis. The confrontation unfolded during India’s training session and appeared to stem from a disagreement over the team’s use of the practice square. Gambhir was spotted wagging his finger and raising his voice, visibly agitated, as Fortis objected to equipment being brought onto the square.
Assistant coach Sitanshu Kotak later offered the team’s version of events. According to him, the tension started earlier in the morning when India’s support staff went to inspect the match pitch, something they do everywhere before a match. “When some of us coaches went to see the wicket, a member of the ground staff [asked us to] stay away at least 2.5 metres, which was a little surprising. Because it is the pitch, the match is starting day after, it will be a five-day Test, and we’re standing in our joggers, so we felt a little awkward,” Kotak said.
“[If] somebody is trying to put something in the wicket or somebody wearing spikes, the curator feels that it is fine. But it was a very strange way of saying you go and stand two and a half meters away from here. So, I think that is what started. Because Gautam is someone who does not even speak unnecessary things. He does not talk to anyone.
“Last four games we played, everywhere, wherever we go, all the curators when they talk, they even tell you when they are going to cut the grass, whether they are going to cut the grass. And if they do not want to give an answer, they will say, we will see [based] on the weather, we will see tomorrow. So, that is a good answer…”
The more visible flashpoint came when support staff wheeled a ‘cooling box’ onto the square while players were practising. Fortis, seated on a roller, reportedly shouted at the staff, which prompted a strong reaction from Gambhir.
“Curators also need to understand that the people they are talking to, they are highly skilled and intelligent people. So for example if you go on the ground now where we practiced you won’t even see that any bowlers in outfield would have marked with his spikes. So we keep spray. So we try and see and that all comes from head coach that we’ll try and see that this ground also should not get damaged.
“If you sound a bit arrogant or if you come across like you know you can be protective but end of the day it’s a cricket pitch. It’s not an antique where you can’t touch because otherwise it’s 200 years old and it can be broken you know.”
“When he was bringing the cooling box there, still he was sitting on the roller, he shouted and told the support staff not to take it there. Now the weight of that cooling box will be 10 kilos according to me,” Kotak said.
As the confrontation escalated, videos surfaced on social media, their authenticity unverified, where Gambhir could allegedly be heard saying: “You report whatever you want. Go, f**k off from here. Go tell him to f***ing report it to the match referee. Don’t tell us what we need to do. Don’t tell us what to do. You don’t tell anyone of us what to do. You’re just a groundsman, stay in your capacity. You’re just a groundsman, nothing beyond that, you’re just a groundsman. You’re just the groundsman. Stay in your capacity.”
Kotak didn’t entail the details of the exchange but said Gambhir was standing up for his staff. He also pointed out that that other visiting teams have faced similar issues at Surrey’s ground. Incidentally, since starting in this role in 2012, Fortis is a four-time winner, including a hat-trick which he completed last November, of ECB’s Bernard Flack Memorial Trophy for for the best multi-day pitches.
“So, it is good to be a little possessive and it is also good to be protective, but not that much. So, then Gautam just said that do not talk to the support staff like this, because the support staff, we all come under the head coach. Any head coach will say that you cannot shout from there and say this. So, it was very normal. Then he [Fortis] came there and he was saying… I think it got built up from the wicket when we were watching. And to be very, very honest, if you want me to be very honest, before coming to Oval, most of the team knows that the curator is not the easiest person to get on with. And I am sure you also would be aware about it. So, that gives a lot of answers.”
Cricbuzz understands that Fortis’ concerns with the usage of square stemmed from how much cricket is still left to be played at the venue, in the domestic season and The Hundred that will begin after the Test series.
“You tell me day after day a batsman will be sliding to survive from run out. A bowler will be sliding there to stop the ball,” Kotak added. “He said that we are trying to get this grass [on the other pitches in the square]. Next wicket to the center wicket I mean I don’t know how much grass will grow in one day and what will happen in next five days. So sometimes you want your ground to be good and square to be good but end of the day it’s a cricket ground.”
© Cricbuzz
