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Pitch Row
Gautam Gambhir yelling curator Lee Fortis at The Oval. Photo: Screen-grab/X

Gautam Gambhir's fight with pitch curator at The Oval: All you need to know

| @indiablooms | Jul 30, 2025, at 12:02 pm

London/IBNS: The Oval on Tuesday witnessed an extension of the "handshake drama" that unfolded in the last hour of the fourth Test between England and India in Manchester a couple of days ago.

In a video which went viral on Tuesday, India's head coach Gautam Gambhir was spotted yelling at pitch curator Lee Fortis and asking him to stay within limits.

In what could be heard from the viral video, Gambhir was heard telling Fortis, "You stop it. You don't tell us what we need to do. You don't tell us what we need to do, okay. You don't need to tell us.

"You don't tell any of my squad what we need to do. You have no right to tell us. You are just a groundsman, you stay in your capacity. You are just a groundsman, nothing beyond. You are just a groundsman."

When asked for his side of the story, Fortis told the journalists who were covering the practice session, "Quite a big game is coming up, isn't it?"

When the reporters pressed him further, Fortis said, "It's not my job to be happy or not with him."

"I don't know about him. I've never met him before. I don't know, he must have played here. You saw what he was like this morning. You saw it," he added.

When he was asked about what led to the fight, the curator said, "I don't know. You have to ask him about it."

According to a report by The Indian Express, Fortis through a messenger asked Gambhir and his coaching partner Sitanshu Kotak to stay 2.5 metres away from the playing surface when the duo went to give a routine pre-match look at the pitch.

The messenger also reportedly shouted at the Indian support staff to not carry a 'cooler' to the ground, the daily reported.

Reacting to the incident, Kotak said in the press conference, "... It was a little surprising because the Test match is about to start the day after. We were standing in joggers. We felt it was a bit awkward."

He added, "We all have played so much cricket and have been on the ground enough. We all know that curators are a little overprotective or possessive about the square and the ground... There is nothing wrong with looking at the wicket with a rubber spike. Curators also need to understand that the people they are talking to are highly skilled and intelligent people.

"When you are working with very intelligent and highly-skilled people, if one sounds a bit arrogant... You can be protective, but at the end of the day, it's a cricket pitch, it's not some antique piece that you cannot touch because it is 200 years old and it can be broken..."

A separate picture has started trending on social media where England's head coach Brendon McCullum was spotted with Fortis on the same pitch, triggering a debate over the curator's double standard.

Trailing England 1-2, India heroically drew the fourth Test displaying resilience with the bat and denied the hosts the chance to win the series in Manchester.

India now have a chance to draw the series winning the fifth and final Test beginning on July 31.

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