"‘He Threatened Me": Manoj Tiwary Opens Up About Gautam Gambhir’s Alleged Conspiracy to Remove Him from KKR
Former Kolkata Knight Riders player Manoj Tiwary, who had played the winning shot for KKR in the IPL 2012 final, has again been vocal about current India head coach Gautam Gambhir. It is no surprise that the rumored clashes of Gambhir with top Indian cricket stars grab most of the headlines, but it is no secret that the story of Gambhir vs Tiwary too is a hot one.
Manoj Tiwary has been open about his stance on Gautam Gambhir in his recent interview. He even said that the former IPL-winning captain once threatened to beat him up during a Ranji Trophy match. Tiwary called Gambhir a "hypocrite" who took all the credit for the two IPL titles under his leadership with KKR. But what's gained more eyeballs are the latest comments from Tiwary.
In an interview with The Lallantop, Manoj Tiwary claimed that Gautam Gambhir abused and heckled him during a Ranji Trophy match. According to sources, Gambhir allegedly shouted at Tiwary while the latter was fielding at slips. He even passed some comments against Sourav Ganguly, who is the BCCI president, on that occasion. The whole incident was quite a talk in the 2015 Ranji Trophy game between Delhi and Bengal.
Manoj Tiwary exposed Gautam Gambhir 🤯 pic.twitter.com/0LrlDj0gFv
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“Leading up to our fight, he was already angry with me. He thought I was wasting time and started abusing me from the slips. He used foul language and then said, ‘Meet me in the evening, I’ll thrash you.’ I replied, ‘Why wait till evening? Let’s fight now.’ I was ready to take him on.”
Tiwary also claimed that Gambhir took a dig at Sourav Ganguly, saying, "He used his connections to enter cricket administration, and you followed him."
Talking about his time in KKR, Tiwary remembered an argument that started from being demoted time and again in the batting order. "In one of the friendly matches against Australia, I was the highest scorer. I had scored 129, while Gambhir scored 110. Even then, he lost his cool. I was applying sunscreen when he came to me and shouted, ‘What are you doing here? Everybody else is on the ground’. Out of nowhere."
Apart from this, Tiwary recalled an incident where Gambhir threatened to drop him from the KKR team. The tussle happened in the presence of then-KKR bowling coach Wasim Akram. Tiwary feels that if Akram hadn't been present, things might have gone out of hand and even turned into a full-blown brawl.
Manoj Tiwari recalls another incident involving an argument with Gautam Gambhir over his batting position at Eden Gardens. "Once, we had a heated argument about my batting position at the Eden Gardens. I was very upset and had gone to the washroom. He barged in and said, ‘This attitude won’t work. I won’t give you a game.’ He was threatening me. I confronted him and asked why he was talking that way. Wasim Akram, our bowling coach, came in and calmed things down; otherwise, it could have turned into a physical fight. Akram told him, ‘You are the captain. Cool down.’ He understood the situation and knew what was happening. Interestingly, he had said good things about my talent a few years ago.
I would get scolded without any reason. I couldn’t understand why he would target me. In fact, when I came to KKR in 2010, he and I got along nicely. But then he would lose his cool at me out of the blue. He would use very hurtful words. Then, when I started thinking about it, I realized that out of all the local boys at KKR, I was the one who used to perform consistently. And since I was a promising youngster, the media was giving me attention. So, he didn’t react to it well. That is what I believe,” Tiwary said.