I was recording my explainer of what happened between Gautam Gambhir and Lee Fortis from the stands just below the media box while two of the crew members from the rights-holding broadcaster were busy doing their work inside the ground. We were in close proximity to each other, and they were listening to me recounting what had transpired between Gautam and Fortis. As soon as I finished, one of them said to me, “That was actually very well said. We experience this all the time.” As I asked him to tell me more, he was conscious of what he had done. “Off the record,” he said, and smiled. “This is an issue with him and this isn’t the first time.” He then went back to his work.
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🚨BREAKING: The Oval Ground Staff, Lee Fortis tries to play down the spat and says,”Gambhir is a touchy guy.”@debasissen @ThumsUpOfficial #ENGvsIND #GautamGambhir pic.twitter.com/pFMif7SIUH
— RevSportz Global (@RevSportzGlobal) July 29, 2025
He wasn’t alone. A number of people at The Oval who are associated with Surrey in some form had similar things to tell us about Fortis. And Sitanshu Kotak, at one point in the press conference said, “We were actually told that the curator here is not easy to deal with, and I am sure you all have heard the same.” Clearly, Fortis’s reputation precedes him. While he is indeed good at his job and has won multiple awards, that he isn’t the most pleasant or easy person to deal with was evident from every conversation we had at The Oval yesterday.
Two things are interesting here. Just before Gambhir and the Indian think-tank went to the pitch, Brendon McCullum and Rob Key inspected it. And as they did, we did not hear anything close to 2.5 metres being mentioned by the curator. Things, however, changed when the Indians neared the pitch, and thereafter, tempers frayed.
Secondly, let’s take a step back and turn to Manchester. The rain had just eased on matchday-minus-one, and the pitch had just been opened up. Within a minute, the Indian think-tank were out there inspecting it, and some of them had even hunched down trying to assess the conditions on offer. No one said a word, and it was all done in the right spirit.
The Oval, however, is different. As Kotak alluded to, it is the territory of someone who regards the pitch as some antique jewellery, and for whatever reason, tends to be “arrogant” on occasion. ‘Arrogant’ is the word Kotak used, and did so multiple times even after the press conference was over.
Let me state it clearly – the Indians were well within their rights to go and check the pitch. They have to play a game on it tomorrow, a match that could define Indian cricket going forward. At no point did they do anything for the curator to feel offended or come at them hard. What happened thereafter, Gambhir calling the groundsman out, was the result of a sequence of events that shouldn’t have started in the first place.
The curator provoked Gambhir and started it, and thereafter things came to a boil. Hope India take motivation from the incident and gives it their all in the series decider. That’s the best reply possible.
Also Read: The Oval vibes: First morning; all smiles and then a ‘Gambhir’ confrontation