The off-field fracas between India and Australia may have reached a temporary truce after BCCI withdrew its complaint against Steve Smith and Peter Handscomb over the DRS controversy, but not all Australians are taking the supposed slight lying down. Australian newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, took the attack to the Indian team with a scathing report that alleges that Virat Kohli and Anil Kumble had violent and furious outburts during the Banaglore Test.
The article, written by Ben Horne, alleges that Kumble ‘stormed into the umpires room mid-innings’ while Kohli ‘struck an Australian official with an orange Gatorade bottle’ and then swore and made a threatning gestures towards the players. The report goes to use some choicest words to paint Kumble and Kohli as archetypical villians of the piece.
Calling Kumble ‘one of the main instigators of the Monkeygate fiasco’ who ‘appear to have reclaimed his role as the puppeteer behind the scenes’, the report claims that the Indian coach went to the match officials to question why Kohli was given out at a key moment, mid-match, which is ‘highly unsusual’.
Then, it gets into character-assasination mode, accusing Kohli – who is referred to as ‘a law unto himself’ – of ‘smashing a Gatorade bottle off a table which struck an Australian team official on the leg’ and then ‘swearing in the direction of the Australian box’ and ‘using a throat-slitting gesture to send-off Peter Handscomb’.
That’s not where the insinuations end. The paper then compares Kohli to ’villainous Sri Lankan leader Arjuna Ranatunga’, both of whom have supposedly indulged in ‘some of the worst bhevaviour by an internatiional captain’.
While being particularly harsh on the India camp, the report ironically seeks to highlight the ‘brazen campaign India is running against Australia’s integrity.’
No one from the Indian team has responded to the newspaper as yet, but this article is sure to add to the bad blood between the two teams.