India head coach Gautam Gambhir was involved in a heated confrontation with the Kia Oval’s head of ground staff in the build-up to the fifth Test with England.
A video filmed by the Press Trust of India, and circulated on social media, showed Gambhir having an argument with Lee Fortis while India were having a net practice session on the outfield.
At the start of the video, Fortis can be seen in discussion with several members of Indian staff before he moves away to stand to the side of the nets.
As Fortis does so, he can be heard telling Gambhir, “I’m going to have to report you.” The former Indian opener then replies: “Go and report whatever.”
Moments later, as Fortis points down at the ground, Gambhir can be heard telling Fortis, “You don’t tell any of us what to do”, and then repeats “you are just a groundsman” several times while pointing his finger at him. The rest of the exchange is inaudible.
VIDEO | Indian team’s head coach Gautam Gambhir was seen having verbal spat with chief curator Lee Fortis at The Oval Cricket Ground in London ahead of the last Test match of the series starting Thursday.
After having drawn the fourth Test at Old Trafford, India have a chance… pic.twitter.com/hfjHOg9uPf
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 29, 2025
Fortis was later asked by Indian media to clarify the cause of the argument. “Why would I want to say anything?” he said. “There’s quite a big game coming up isn’t there? It’s not my job to be happy with (Gambhir). I’ve never met him before today. You saw what he was like this morning.”
Asked again why Gambhir was so animated, Fortis added: “You’ll have to ask him that question. There’s nothing to speak about. We’ve nothing to hide here.”
Sources with knowledge of the situation told The Athletic that the clash began when the India team dragged their kit bags across the square at the Oval ahead of practice instead of carrying them, to the displeasure of Fortis, and then Gambhir complained about the amount of grass on the pitch.
A Surrey source, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Athletic: “We’re looking after the square. We’ve had a lot of cricket played on it this summer and we are looking after every blade of grass.
“It was two men just being protective in the way they were going about their jobs. The way the series has gone, it’s been a bit fractious and tempers are frayed. As far as I’m aware, there won’t be any complaint from us.”
Later, Sitanshu Kotak, assistant coach of India, told reporters in a press conference that Fortis had made the visitors feel “awkward” through his behaviour towards them.
“When some of the coaches went to see the wicket a member of the groundstaff said, ‘Stay away at least 2.5 metres’ which was a little surprising,” he said. “We felt a little awkward.
“We were just looking at the wicket, with rubber spikes. There’s nothing wrong with that. Curators should understand that the people they’re talking to are highly skilled and intelligent. If you sound a bit arrogant or if you come across like…. If you go out there now you will not see any marks made by spikes. We try to make sure the ground doesn’t get damaged.
“You can be protective but at the end of the day it is a cricket pitch. It is not an antique where you can’t touch because if it was 200 years old it can be broken.”
The flashpoint is the latest controversy in an increasingly fractious series, which England lead 2-1 ahead of the final game.
Both sets of players clashed during the third Test at Lord’s, with visiting captain Shubman Gill accusing England of violating the spirit of the game by timewasting on the third evening.
England’s players then criticised Indian batters Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar on the final day of the fourth Test at Old Trafford after they declined an offer to end the game early as a draw, with both nearing centuries.
Gambhir was appointed as India’s head coach in July 2024, succeeding his former teammate Rahul Dravid.
The 43-year-old played 58 Test matches and 147 one-day internationals, making 20 international centuries across all formats.
After retiring from playing in 2018, he embarked on a political career, becoming a member of parliament at the 2019 Indian general election for Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. He stepped back from active politics in March 2024.
Fortis has been head of ground staff at Surrey County Cricket Club since 2012 and has won the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) grounds manager of the year award three years running.
This has been an unusually heated Test series on the field, while England have been privately angry off it at the condition of pitches.
Preparation of all surfaces for Test cricket is very much down to the home county and there is often pressure put on groundstaff to provide pitches that last five days and create maximum revenue for the hosts.
England are allowed to liaise with groundstaff in an attempt to gain home advantage but have been frustrated this summer at what they perceive to be pitches that are more sub-continental than English in nature.
Captain Ben Stokes is reluctant to criticise pitches in public through fear of it looking like an excuse but he did say before the fourth Test at Old Trafford that “the first three wickets haven’t necessarily played the way we thought they were going to.”
And Stokes’ mood was not improved by a pitch at Old Trafford that was so flat and slow it produced 1,452 runs for the loss of only 24 wickets, including just two in the last five sessions of the Test.
England have asked Surrey to provide a pitch with pace, life and a bit of grass on it for Thursday’s final Test. It is that grass that was at the centre of the clash between India Gambhir and Fortis.
Fortis is a highly regarded head of groundstaff who is very much his own man and will do things his way. The county pitches at the Kia Oval this season have had pace and bounce and Surrey expect the Test surface to produce the same. That may suit Stokes and England coach Brendon McCullum but is likely to displease Gambhir and India.
(Top photo of Gautam Gambhir: Gareth Copley/Getty Images)