'He's a hypocrite because he's the one who said that India, when he was not the coach of Team India, said that India and Pakistan should never play a match between them.'
The long-running feud between Manoj Tiwary and Gautam Gambhir has flared up once again.
Nearly a decade after their ugly on-field spat in the Ranji Trophy, Tiwary has dubbed the current India head coach a 'hypocrite' over his stand on playing Pakistan.
Speaking to CrickTracker, Tiwary questioned Gambhir's stance on India facing Pakistan in multilateral tournaments, especially in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor.
'I always felt that he's someone who is a hypocrite. He's a hypocrite because he's the one who said that India, when he was not the coach of Team India, said that India and Pakistan should never play a match between them. What will he do now? He's the coach of the team that's going to play Pakistan in the Asia Cup,' Tiwary told CrickTracker.
Their uneasy relationship dates back to a Ranji Trophy encounter between Delhi and Bengal at the Feroz Shah Kotla in October 2015, where they nearly came to blows.
Tiwary had then accused Gambhir of making 'racist' remarks about Sourav Ganguly and Bengalis.
'He made racist remarks about Sourav Ganguly and Bengalis. I spoke to Sourav Ganguly and he is very upset that his name has been dragged in the matter. We will never accept anything against Sourav Ganguly,' Tiwary had said at the time.
Gambhir had strongly denied the charges, insisting he never pushed the umpire or abused Tiwary, and claimed that video evidence showed Tiwary pushing Delhi bowler Pradeep Sangwan.
'At no point did I threaten or push any on-field umpires. Nor did I threaten to beat Manoj up,' Gambhir had said in a statement.
The Delhi-Bengal clash in 2015, overseen by Umpire K Srikanth and Match Referee Valmick Buch, was one of the ugliest domestic incidents of that season, and it firmly cemented the animosity between the two players.
Now, nearly ten years later, the tension between Tiwary -- who is now a Trinamool Congress MLA and a West Bengal minister -- and Gambhir -- who served a term as a Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Delhi -- has resurfaced, this time with Tiwary accusing India's head coach of going against his stated beliefs ahead of a high-voltage Asia Cup, where India and Pakistan are scheduled to meet on September 14 in Dubai, with possible further meetings in the Super 4 and final.