‘Spirit of cricket’: Sehwag slams Karthik; recalls Dhoni rebuking Ashwin

What happens on field should remain on field, said former India hitter Virendra Sehwag, as he dived into the ‘spirit of cricket’ controversy, which started with an altercation between Delhi Capitals’ R Ashwin and Kolkata Knight Riders’ captain Eoin Morgan during an IPL match a few days back.

Sehwag squarely blamed former KKR captain Dinesh Karthik for stoking the Ashwin-Morgan spat by giving out details in public. “I consider Dinesh Karthik the biggest culprit in all this. If he had not talked about what Morgan said, there would have been no such uproar. If he had said, “It was nothing much, just an argument, it happens in the game, move on,” then it would have come out in that sense only. What was the need for an explanation that someone thinks this or that?” Sehwag said.

Reminiscing an incident that happened during the IPL in 2014, Sehwag said MS Dhoni ‘reprimanded’ Ashwin for giving an animated send-off to Glenn Maxwell during a match between the Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab. Sehwag said he was at the runner up end and saw Ashwin pick up some dirt from the pitch-side and blow it towards the dressing after getting Maxwell out. “I didn’t like that scene either but I didn’t come out publicly to say that he should not have done that or it was against the spirit of the game, although MS Dhoni was very angry about it and scolded him a lot too,” Sehwag told Cricbuzz.

“But it was Ashwin’s wish to do that and if someone had come out talking about it in the media or social media it might have caused an uproar too. This is the player’s responsibility, right?” said Sehwag.

“What happens inside should remain inside. If more things from the inside start coming out, I can guarantee every match will have something like this that will cause an uproar. The spirit of the game also says that players should leave what happens inside the ground as is and move on,” he said.

Also read: ‘I stood up for myself’: Ashwin breaks silence on spat with Morgan

Ravichandran Ashwin broke the silence on his recent on-field altercation with Eoin Morgan in a series of tweets the other day.

The altercation happened after Ashwin tried stealing an extra run and was slammed for breaching the ‘spirit of cricket’. Ashwin (35) sent a series of tweets defending his actions, saying he “stood up for himself”.

Sehwag responded then by citing the controversial ending of the 2019 World Cup final, which England won thanks to superior boundary count. Shane Warne, however, called the spat “disgraceful”.

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In the KKR Vs Delhi match of the IPL, Ashwin had the last laugh as he dismissed Morgan for a second-ball duck. Morgan fended at a length delivery that landed in the hands of Lalit Yadav at first slip.

Delhi Capitals, however, failed to get the better of KKR as Morgan’s side won the match by three wickets with 10 balls to spare.