Afghanistan fast bowler Naveen-ul-Haq has put forth his side of the story regarding his verbal spat with Virat Kohli after the May 2 fixture between Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore. As the result eventually went in Bangalore’s favour, throughout the match the tensions between both teams were high.
Especially involving in Naveen-ul-Haq and Virat Kohli, where both individuals were chirping at each other. But after the match ended, the clash between the two teams, and saw an angry verbal spat between rival players and support staff after which Kohli, LSG mentor Gautam Gambhir and Naveen-ul-Haq were reprimanded.
Also Read: Virat Kohli gets into verbal fight with Gautam Gambhir and other LSG players
So while speaking to BBC Pashto, Naveen-ul-Haq revealed that he didn’t start the fight and while the players were shaking hands, Virat Kohli was the one, who started it all. “He shouldn’t have said all those things during the match and after it. I didn’t started the fight. After the match, when we were shaking hands, Virat Kohli started the fight,” he told.
Further talking in the interview, Naveen-ul-Haq talked about how never opts to sledge when he's in the middle. The Afghan pacer also referred to the fines to understand, who was the root cause behind the altercation. He said, “When you will look at the fines, you will understand, who started the fight. I just want to say one thing I generally don’t sledge anyone, and even if I do it I would say it to the batters only when I am bowling because I am a bowler. In that match, I didn’t utter a single word. I didn’t sledged anyone.”
Naveen-ul-Haq also revealed that the fight ignited after Virat Kohli caught his hand forcefully. “Players, who were there they know how I dealt with the situation. I never lost my temper, when I was batting or after the match. What I did after the match is can be seen by everyone. I was just shaking hands and then he (Kohli) caught my hand forcefully and I am also human being and I reacted,” he added.
The Lucknow Super Giants fast bowler also talked about this spat going into the social media space and said, “I never wanted to drag the issue on social media or any platform. But when the opposition started to say bad things on social media, I couldn’t control myself. I never took the name of any individual, I was just enjoying my mangoes.”
