England's Hypocrisy Exposed After Gambhir's Clash With Pitch Curator As Brendon McCullum Stood On It But India Head Coach Denied Access

IND vs ENG 5th Test: Both India and England are gearing up for the fifth and the last Test match but these preparations took a surprising turn of events on Tuesday as Gautam Gambhir, who is the head coach of the Men in Blue was seen getting involved in a heated exchange with Lee Fortis, who is the chief curator of the Oval pitch in India's practice session, which led to debate around the double standards of the pitch access. The incident happened just two days before the fifth Test match, and it was Fortis who started the argument as he tried to tell the Indian coaches to stay away from the pitch at least 2.5m while inspecting.

Gambhir, who is known for being short-tempered, took this directive in the wrong way.

Those who had witnessed the scene quite closely revealed what Gambhir told Fortis, "You don't tell any of us what we need to do. You have no right to tell us. You are just a groundsman-nothing beyond." Fortis, who has been taking care of the pitch for the last few years at the Oval and was also praised by the ECB, then replied and said, "I will have to report this."

About ten Indian players had witnessed this heated exchange during the practice session, except Shubman Gill. The team was gearing up in normal preparations, where a few of the Indian coaches were seen wearing joggers instead of spikes, and that's not an issue in such a practice session.

Sitanshu Kotak, who is Team India's batting coach, tried to intervene to control the situation and then provided an update.

"When we went to have a look at the wicket, someone came up and told us to stand 2.5 metres away. That was surprising, to say the least. We weren't wearing spikes. There are still two days to go before the match. I've never seen anything like it in my life," he said.

Kotak further reckoned that although it is perfectly fine for a curator to be protective of the surface, not to such an extent. He also said that a few players had told him that Fortis isn't the easiest person to deal wth.

Just a few hours after this heated exchange, a photo had gone viral where the same pitch curator was seen standing on the surface with Brendon McCullum.

"Brendon McCullum takes his first inspection at the pitch 48hrs out with The Oval's head groundsman Lee Fortis," the caption of that photo read, and it was from the 2023 Ashes series, where both of them were standing at the pitch vertically during the pre-match training session.

Ex-India cricketer Aakash Chopra restarted this debate by sharing this post on his social media account and alleged that Oval's pitch curator was being hypocrite and also questioned his double standards.

"Why are you looking at this pitch, brother? You stay 25 metres away. This is what the groundsman said to Gambhir. And yet, here's the same curator on the pitch with McCullum two days before the Ashes Test. What's going on? Different rules for different people?" Chopra had written on his official X account.

NO OFFICIAL COMPLAINT

Even though it was a heated exchange, Kotak revealed that they won't be filing any complaint. But this incident did grab a few eyeballs since there is an imbalance in getting access to the pitches in England.

The ECK issued no public statement about this incident. At the same time, the Oval has been proud to produce brilliant pitches under Fortis' guidance and has also won the award for best multi-day pitches in the last few years.

But the image of inconsistency while dealing with visiting teams would now affect that reputation. As per Kotak, "It's okay to be possessive about your pitch. But there has to be a line."