The spicy spats that have increasingly been a feature in the England-India Tests this summer spilled in to training on Tuesday when the tourists’ head coach, Gautam Gambhir, had a row with Lee Fortis, Surrey’s head groundsman, as his team prepared for the final Test of the series at the Oval on Thursday.
England were enjoying a break, but with the series still to be decided and India 2-1 down after their fightback at Old Trafford the visitors’ work in the nets was far from straightforward as tensions surfaced in angry exchanges.
Reports suggest Fortis was unhappy with India using parts of the main square with him being told “you can’t tell us what to do”. Sitanshu Kotak, India’s batting coach, apparently accused the head groundsman of being “a bit arrogant” and shouting at members of India’s staff.
Gambhir, who played 58 Tests for India, was seen on camera wagging his finger at Fortis saying: “You can’t tell us what to do … you’re just the groundsman, nothing beyond.”
After walking away in conversation with Kotak, who appeared to take on the role of mediator, Fortis told Gambhir he may be forced to lodge a complaint against him, drawing a response of: “You can go and report to whoever you want.”
Afterwards, Fortis said: “It is quite a big game coming up. It is not my job to be happy with [Gautam Gambhir] or not. I have never met him before today. You saw what he was like this morning. It’s OK, I am fine. We have nothing to hide.”
Kotak said Fortis’s objections to a cool box being wheeled on to the square kicked off the arguments. “He was sitting on the roller, he shouted and told the support staff not to take it there,” he said.
“It is good to be a little possessive and it is also good to be protective, but not that much. Gautam just said do not talk to the support staff like this.
“Most of the team knows that the curator is not the easiest person to get on with. So, that gives a lot of answers. When you’re working with very intelligent and highly skilled people, if you sound a bit arrogant or if you come across like … you can be protective. It is a cricket pitch. It is not an antique where you can’t touch.”
Whether India’s frustrations included concerns over the Test pitch as well as their training provisions is not known, but the Oval deck is expected to carry some live grass at the start of the game and provide greater pace and bounce than in the previous three matches.
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England’s attack has struggled for cut-through at times, not least in the last innings at Old Trafford, where they took four wickets in 143 overs.
India’s rearguard action ended in rancour, with Ben Stokes annoyed that Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja declined his offer of an early handshake as they pursued centuries. Both men reached three figures, but did so with some persistent sledging from England fielders.
Relations between the teams had been relatively serene until a time-wasting row at the third Test at Lord’s, where Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett were treated to some choice words from the India captain, Shubman Gill.
England responded by accusing Gill of running down the clock during his own innings and Mohammed Siraj was fined for his send-off of Duckett the next morning, though a brief shoulder-to-shoulder contact between the two was accepted as accidental.
