IPL 2017: Former Australian cricketer and Gujarat Lions’ coach Brad Hodge sparked a controversy when he questioned Virat Kohli’s commitment and suggested that he might have opted to sit out of the deciding Test against Australia in Dharamsala to get himself ready for the upcoming season of Indian Premier League (IPL 2017). Hodge questioned Virat’s sportsmanship saying that it would be “dirty” if he featured for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in a few days after resting himself for the all-important 4th Test.
This is what Brad Hodge said:
“You would think that your captain would get out there and get amongst the fight and get in there,” Hodge said. “You’d hope as a sportsman that he’s seriously injured.
“Because if you miss one game of Test match cricket and you’re fronting up the next week for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) versus whoever … you’d be pretty dirty if he didn’t front up to a Test match and try and win a valuable series against Australia.
“It’s happened before,” Hodge said. “Not just Virat but there’s many players that have come up to IPL time and … look, we know it’s a cash-rich tournament, there’s some money up for grabs.
“There are certain players that will limp in, to IPL time, to make sure they get there and perform well.”
And here’s how Gautam Gambhir replied:
“That’s absolutely not valid,” Gambhir told CNN. “I feel that someone who’s playing for their country and captaining it would never want to miss a Test match and would definitely want to play for India more than any other tournament. That’s always been the case.
“Knowing Virat he would have never done that and these people, look if you want to be in the headline you can say anything you want and it’s just about making a headline or trying to get your name in the press by making such statements.
“If you don’t know the extent of the injury you should not be talking about it.”
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