Gautam Gambhir Hits Back at Sunil Gavaskar: ‘Commentating for 25 Years and Questioning Everything I Did’

Gautam Gambhir Hits Back at Sunil Gavaskar: India head coach Gautam Gambhir was direct and speedily attacked ex-India captain Sunil Gavaskar, in relation to Gavaskar's comments regarding the prize money for winning the Champions Trophy. After Rohit Sharma and co. won the pool of eight teams against New Zealand in the final, the BCCI later announced the original prize money which was INR 58 crore. Gavaskar, then, wrote in his column for Sportstar, will Gambhir would follow his predecessor, Rahul Dravid's lead, by taking no more than the others on the support staff.

The former test cricketer, Dravid, chose to take grab a piecemeal share of the INR 2.5 crore that the Indian cricket board gave him after the T20 World Cup win of 2024 rather than have the full amount since he did not want to take any more than the rest.

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While Gautam Gambhir appeared at the ABP News 'India At 2047' Summit, on Tuesday, was able talk about his coaching experience with Team India thus far, it more like comedy hour with the mixed tenure so far. India added to the champions trophy title. However, lost its test series against New Zealand (home) and Australia (away).

At which point Guttam Gambhir appeared to take a jab at those callers bashing his time as head coach.

“When I took up this job of being the head coach of 140 crore Indians, I knew that when you get judged every day on the performance of the team, there will always be criticism, there will always be appreciation. And it will never happen that the graph goes up in the same way,” said Gambhir.

“There will always be ups and downs, which I was very well aware of. And it hasn't changed. And I'm absolutely fine with it because my job is to make the country proud with all the players, and that is going to stay till the last day of my coaching career. It's just been 8 months. Just 8 months. And as I told you before, if the results don't come, I'm absolutely fine with criticism,” he added.

Gambhir, while not mentioning Gavaskar by name, responded to what the former India captain said about the Champions Trophy and the prize money.

“It's people's job to criticise me, and they should criticise. But there are some people who have been sitting in the commentary box for 20-25 years. They questioned everything I did. They think that Indian cricket is their property. Unfortunately, Indian cricket is not someone's property. It is the identity of 140 crore Indians and it will remain that way. They questioned my coaching, my records, my concussions and even my prize money,” said Gambhir.

“The prize money that I got in the Champions Trophy. I don't need to tell this country where I left the money and where I invested it. But this country should know that such people have been working in the country as NRIs for so many years. They earn money from the country and take it abroad. I don't do security checks or immigration at 11:55," he added.

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Speaking further, he stated, “Those who only have to spend 1 day, 180 days. I am an Indian, and I will remain an Indian till my last breath. I will not become an NRI to save tax. People who live in glass houses shouldn't be throwing stones at other people's homes.”

The present head coach, who is preparing for his next assignment, the five-Test series against England, said he is not accountable to what the commentators think, and cares nothing about what they said, as he only looked to achieve successful results.

“I want to be a coach. And I don't have any responsibility towards them. I want to be a coach for that 10 or 12-year-old kid who comes to watch the match in the sun and sits for 6 or 7 hours. If he can go back happily. If we can send him back happily, that is my responsibility,” said Gambhir.

“Who says what in the commentary box, who says what on YouTube, who says what on the broadcaster, what the media says, that is not my job. My job is not to prove them wrong, or prove them right,” he added.

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