Gautam Gambhir lands punches on Sunil Gavaskar: 'Sitting in commentary for 25 years and questioning everything I did...'

India head coach Gautam Gambhir pulled no punches as he tore into former India captain Sunil Gavaskar regarding the latter's Champions Trophy prize money comment. After Rohit Sharma and co-won the eight-team tournament by defeating New Zealand in the summit clash, the BCCI announced a prize money of INR 58 crore. Gavaskar, then, in his column for Sportstar, asked whether Gambhir would follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, Rahul Dravid, in refusing to take more than the other members of the support staff.

After the T20 World Cup win in 2024, Dravid refrained from taking the additional INR 2.5 crore that the Indian cricket board was awarding him, and he decided to go for an equal share of the prize bonus as the rest of his support staff.

Gautam Gambhir appeared at the ABP News ‘India At 2047’ Summit on Tuesday, and he spoke about his coaching tenure with Team India so far. Gambhir's tenure has been mixed. India won the Champions Trophy but lost the Test series against New Zealand (home) and Australia (away).

It was then that he took a potshot at commentators who have been lambasting his tenure.

“When I took up this job of being the head coach of 140 crore Indians, I knew that when you get judged every day on the performance of the team, there will always be criticism, there will always be appreciation. And it will never happen that the graph goes up in the same way,” said Gambhir.

“There will always be ups and downs, which I was very well aware of. And it hasn't changed. And I'm absolutely fine with it because my job is to make the country proud with all the players, and that is going to stay till the last day of my coaching career. It's just been 8 months. Just 8 months. And as I told you before, if the results don't come, I'm absolutely fine with criticism,” he added.

Without taking Gavaskar's name, Gambhir also expressed his opinion about what the former India captain had to say about the Champions Trophy and the prize money associated with it.

“It's people's job to criticise me, and they should criticise. But there are some people who have been sitting in the commentary box for 20-25 years. They questioned everything I did. They think that Indian cricket is their property. Unfortunately, Indian cricket is not someone's property. It is the identity of 140 crore Indians and it will remain that way. They questioned my coaching, my records, my concussions and even my prize money,” said Gambhir.

“The prize money that I got in the Champions Trophy. I don't need to tell this country where I left the money and where I invested it. But this country should know that such people have been working in the country as NRIs for so many years. They earn money from the country and take it abroad. I don't do security checks or immigration at 11:55," he added.

Speaking further, he stated, “Those who only have to spend 1 day, 180 days. I am an Indian, and I will remain an Indian till my last breath. I will not become an NRI to save tax. People who live in glass houses shouldn't be throwing stones at other people's homes.”

‘Not bothered about what commentators have to say’

The current head coach, whose next assignment is the five-match Test series against England, stated that he is not answerable to what the commentators think and he doesn't care about their opinion as his focus remains on getting successful results.

“I want to be a coach. And I don't have any responsibility towards them. I want to be a coach for that 10 or 12-year-old kid who comes to watch the match in the sun and sits for 6 or 7 hours. If he can go back happily. If we can send him back happily, that is my responsibility,” said Gambhir.

“Who says what in the commentary box, who says what on YouTube, who says what on the broadcaster, what the media says, that is not my job. My job is not to prove them wrong, or prove them right,” he added.