‘Made me laugh, it was brilliant’ - Graeme Swann gives his take on Kohli-Gambhir spat

The 43rd match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 featured a thrilling game against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants on Monday, May 1. However, despite Bangalore clinching the win, the on-field argument between Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir captured more headlines. 

After Bangalore defeated Delhi, Kohli and Gambhir got into an argument over the star Indian batter calling out Naveen-ul-Haq and the Lucknow mentor dragging Kyle Mayers away from Kohli after the game. However, former English cricketer Graeme Swann came forward to opine that such spats are good for cricket. He also opined that the Kohli-Gambhir argument was "brilliant".

Swann reflected on the fact that emotions do go out of control on the cricket pitch and even opined that the fans should not dilute the players to the point where they stop expressing themselves on the field.

"Having played cricket throughout my life, sometime emotions do boil over on the field. You know what, it's good for the league if they do. You should never try to dilute the players so much, that they don't wear their hearts on their sleeves. One of the reasons why Virat Kohli is Virat Kohli is because he is so passionate about his cricket," Graeme Swann told NDTV.

"He is so in your face that it intimidates a lot of players. And yet, there will be some players who will think that it goes too far. Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli will always have their thing going. They are massive personalities, who grew up playing together. So, Gautam is never going to back down to Virat. That made me laugh. I thought it was brilliant," he added.

Meanwhile, both Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants are still in the race for playoff qualification in the tournament. Lucknow find themselves in fourth place in the IPL points table with 11 points in just as many games. On the other hand, Bangalore sit on seventh spot with 10 points in 11 games. Both the sides would be focused on winning their forthcoming matches to secure qualification for the knockout stages of the competition.