The Chennai Super Kings batter had his earlier tweet mistaken for an indirect jibe at the legendary commentator, who had criticised his poor outing versus the Royals.
Ambati Rayudu had to issue a clarification tweet after his earlier remarks following Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) heavy loss in the IPL 2023 to Rajasthan Royals (RR) this Thursday (April 27) were mistaken as an indirect jibe on the legendary Sunil Gavaskar.
Rayudu found himself in the midst of an unwanted controversy yet again after making a brief return to his usually quiet Twitter account. Following CSK’s defeat in a high-scoring fixture against the Royals in Jaipur, the experienced Indian batter took to the social media forum and made a motivational tweet.
However, even the soothing nature of the tweet couldn’t help the veteran right-hander avoid controversy as a section of fans on the outside felt it was an indirect aim at Gavaskar for his remarks made against the player’s performance in the CSK-RR clash.
Gavaskar, who has been covering IPL 2023 from the commentary box, had criticised Ambati Rayudu for his no-show in Chennai’s 32-run defeat that brought them down from the numero uno spot in the league standings.
The matter began with Gavaskar picking out Rayudu for his poor outing in CSK’s loss to the Royals. The right-hander, who came in as an ‘Impact Player’ for the four-time champions, was out for a two-ball duck, unable to keep CSK within contention to chase down the opposition’s massive 202/5, leading Gavaskar to make a “no fielding, no runs” remark against him.
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After the match, Rayudu opened up his Twitter account and wrote down a motivational post for his teammates as they strived to overcome the loss, telling them “results are not always the measure of our efforts.”
In life and sport ups and downs are a constant part. We need to be positive and keeping working hard and things will turn around.. results are not always a measure of our effort. So always keeping smiling and enjoy the process.. pic.twitter.com/1AYAALkGBM
— ATR (@RayuduAmbati) April 28, 2023
The tweet immediately grabbed attention, as most sporadic Rayudu tweets tends to, having previously also found himself in the midst of controversy. Fans felt the player is taking aim at Gavaskar for being critical of his poor output in CSK’s previous match.
Seeing the ‘Rayudu vs Gavaskar’ narrative pick up steam, the player issued a clarification tweet, stating the idea that he would go after an Indian cricket legend of the stature of Gavaskar is absolute “nonsense”.
What nonsense… my tweet has nothing to do with the great mr Gavaskars comments.. his opinions are well respected and in regards to my fielding . A player doesn’t decide if he wants to field or not.
— ATR (@RayuduAmbati) April 28, 2023
Notably, Rayudu mentioned that he holds Gavaskar in great regards and respects his opinion, albeit while defending himself in the context that he had no right to decide whether he could field or not.
