Well before the Gavaskar-Kohli issue, there were a lot of cases of cricketers having problems with what reporters wrote, although it wouldn’t be fair to say that the journalists were always in the right

England coach Duncan Fletcher (right) interacts with a few print journalists at Windhoek international airport in Namibia in 2004. Pic/Getty Images

Present cricket stars hitting out at former stalwarts… now there’s a bit of history to that!

The latest edition to this chapter is Virat Kohli getting back at the television commentators for bringing up his strike-rate during the ongoing Indian Premier League, followed by Sunil Gavaskar taking off on the broadcasters for going on about that piece of Kohli footage too often.

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We’ve had many instances of players having bones to pick with commentators. Before that, there were a lot of cases of players having issues with what journalists wrote. So, print journalists were the original hit-back targets, although it wouldn’t be fair to say that the keyboard-tappers were in the right all the time.

And though it may not have been funny at the time of the occurrence, it produced some level of mirth later on. One of the most hilarious instances of player-reporter ‘duels’ was revealed by the late Suresh Saraiya, an AIR commentator, in Willow Tales, a compilation of cricket anecdotes by that pleasant former commentator Fredun De Vitre. During the Bombay v Rajasthan 1969-70 Ranji Trophy final, Ashok Mankad dropped a sitter at slip. Sitting in the Brabourne Stadium press box, Saraiya exclaimed within earshot of a rookie reporter: “That’s Mankad’s........

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