Kevin Pietersen slammed over his comment on Khaleel Ahmed in CSK vs SRH game; he responds

Commentary has come under the scanner on multiple occasions in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season in UAE. While it was Sunil Gavaskar first, Kevin Pietersen is facing the heat for his comment over Khaleel Ahmed during the game between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Friday.

The game was going down the wire when Khaleel, while fielding at the third man, dived to stop the ball only to feel cramps in his legs. It was not clear what happened to him though as he was in some pain and the physio had to attend the pacer to make sure he was fine.

At the same time, Kevin Pietersen was commentating on-air and he funnily said that Khaleel Ahmed is faking the cramp to avoid bowling in the death overs to the set batsmen – MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja. The left-arm pacer had one over left of his quota and Pietersen’s comment didn’t go down well with Joy Bhattacharjya, one of the prominent names in cricket media.

He termed the former England cricketer’s comment as unfair and also said that the comment wasn’t made in a good taste. “No KP. No matter what happens, Khaleel was not faking a cramp to avoid bowling his last over. That’s unfair! I have worked years as a television producer. Trained to understand tone. I stand by my words. At best clumsy, at worst, not in good taste,” he wrote in his tweets.

Here’s the tweet:

Kevin Pietersen clarifies his stand

Meanwhile, Kevin Pietersen came across the tweet and he was quick to clarify his statement saying that it was just a light-hearted matter and nothing else. He also asked Joy to tag him in such tweets so that he will be able to respond to him soon. “With the greatest respect, Joy, this you have gotten horribly wrong. It was light hearted banter with absolutely no negative intent whatsoever.

“Please if you’re going to make such a silly comment, at least tag me. That’s what people who aren’t clumsy & have good taste do!” his tweet read. As far as Khaleel Ahmed is concerned, he bowled the 19th over of the innings delivering five balls after Bhuvneshwar Kumar got injured.

Responding to Kevin Pietersen’s response, Joy apologized to him but preferred to stand by his words despite the statement being a part of the banter. “I apologize. I would have tagged you had I known it would be such a big deal. I stand by what I say, even if it was intended as humour, implying that a young Indian kid was dodging an important over as he was scared did not work for me. And absolutely, that is a personal call,” he wrote with Pietersen also ending the conversation on a good note.