Naveen Ul Haq. (Photo Source: BCCI/IPL)
One of the rivalries of the IPL 2023 season turned out to be RCB versus LSG. Virat Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq got into an altercation after the match and LSG’s mentor Gautam Gambhir also got involved. All three of them were fined for breaching the IPL’s code of conduct. As a result, 100% fines were imposed on the match fees of Kohli and Gambhir while Naveen received a 50% fine.
Naveen has recently clarified the series of events that took place during the customary post-match handshakes, blaming Kohli for instigating the scuffle. Furthermore, the youngster from Afghanistan mentioned that he did not have any altercation with anyone during the match. He reacted only when Kohli held his hand after the match when the two teams were shaking hands.
“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. When you will look at the fines, you will understand, who started the fight,” he told BBC Pashto in an interview.
“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,” Haq continued.
“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,” the Afghan pacer stated.
I know how to shut critics’ mouth: Naveen-ul-Haq
After the incident, Naveen-ul-Haq received severe backlash on social media as well as in the stadiums during his matches. The youngster said that he wasn’t concerned about the trollers as he was more focused on letting his game do the talking.
“It didn’t affected me at all. I know how to shut critics’ mouth. I don’t have to gave it back to the 80,000 people, I was just focusing on my cricket, I had trust in my abilities and wanted my performance to do the talking,” he said.
The Afghan pacer further continued by recalling the fans and social media was set ablaze after the incident. Despite that, he vowed to keep playing cricket as he attained whatever success he has had at the international level has come through hard work. However, he minced no words by adding that it was how the opposition said things about him and the whole saga which forced him to deal with it in his own way and cleared the air about his social media. The most famous one was the ‘eating Mangoes’ story Haq had posted on his Instagram handle to troll the opposition.
“I never wanted to drag the issue on the 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,” Haq concluded.