Former South Africa captain Dean Elgar recently retired from international cricket and revealed a shocking incident from the Proteas’ 2015 tour of India. Elgar alleged that during the first Test at the IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali, former India captain Virat Kohli ‘spat’ at him. Elgar further revealed that he threatened to strike Kohli if such an incident occurred again.
‘Those wickets were jokes. Like playing on that… that surface there. And I came into bat, holding my own against Ashwin and what’s his name, Jeja, Jeja, Jeja (Ravindra Jadeja) (smiles) and Kohli, he spat at me,’ shared Elgar on the ‘Banter, with The Boys’ podcast for Betway South Africa’s YouTube channel. ‘I said to him if you do that, I’ll f**g ** you with this bat,’ he added, using a local profanity.
When asked if Kohli understood the meaning of the word, Elgar replied, “Yes, he did because de Villiers was his teammate at RCB, so he understood. And I said if you do that, I’ll … on this field, I’ll absolutely knock you out. And then [he said] ‘Hey F** you, F** you’ (mimicking the Indian) but barking up the wrong tree, yeah. Anyways, we are in India so you got to be a little bit cautious.’
Elgar, however, disclosed that Kohli apologized for his behavior a few years later during India’s tour of South Africa in 2017-18. ‘Two, three years later, Kohli pulled me aside and said ‘Listen, can we go and have a drink after the series; I want to apologize for my actions.’ So we drank till 3 in the morning. This is when he used to drink,’ he concluded.
Elgar played his final Test against India earlier this month at Newlands in Cape Town. In his farewell Test, he captained South Africa as Temba Bavuma was sidelined due to injury. However, India won the second Test, leveling the series 1-1.
