Who is Lee Fortis, the Oval pitch curator Gautam Gambhir was yelling at

(LEFT) Surrey’s Head of Ground Staff, Lee Fortis with the trophy for preparing the best multi-day pitches in England last year; (RIGHT) India coach Gautam Gambhir during a practice session on Tuesday. (PHOTOs: Grounds Management Association, PTI)

Just days after watching his team fight their way — in more ways than one — to a draw in the Old Trafford Test in Manchester, Gautam Gambhir got into a fight of his own at the Oval stadium on Tuesday as the Indian team attended their first training session before their final Test against England. In visuals captured by the travelling flock of Indian media, Gambhir can be seen yelling at a burly man, who was later identified as Oval pitch curator Lee Fortis.

Gambhir can be heard yelling ‘you don’t tell us what we need to do’. Later, India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak had revealed that the Oval staff had tried to tell Indian team management when they had gone to check out the wicket to stand two and a half metres away. This had sparked the confrontation between India head coach Gambhir and Fortis, where he can be seen telling the India coach that he will raise a complaint with the match referee.

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