Recently-retired South Africa great Dean Elgar has sensationally claimed that India star Virat Kohli “spat at me” in an early Test meeting between the two, before apologising in a 3am drinking session two years later.
Elgar, the former Proteas skipper, retired from international cricket last month after South Africa’s two-Test series at home against India, with Kohli leading the tributes to the former opener and even gifting him a signed jersey.
In an incredible moment during that Test, Kohli gestured to Indian fans in the Cape Town crowd not to cheer after Elgar’s final dismissal before giving Elgar a warm embrace.
But things weren’t always so cosy between the pair.
Speaking on the Banter with The Boys podcast, Elgar opened up on his first clash with Kohli,
believed to have taken place in South Africa’s tour of India in 2015 which doubled as Kohli’s first as skipper on home soil.
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“In India … Those wickets were jokes,” Elgar said.
“And I came into bat and I was actually like holding my own against (Ravichandran) Ashwin and what’s his name Jajeja … ja-ja-jajeja, (Ravindra Jadeja) and Kohli, he like spat at me,” Elgar said.
“I said to him: ‘if you do that, I’ll f*****g ***** you with this bat’.”
“He understood that word?” Elgar was asked, given the latter swear word was not in English.
“Yes, he did because (AB) de Villiers was his teammate at RCB so he understood. I said ‘if you do that, I’ll absolutely knock you out’,” Elgar claimed.
“And then [Kohli said]: ‘Hey f*** you, f*** you’, barking up the wrong tree. Anyways, we are in India so you got to be a little bit cautious.”
AB de Villiers, a teammate of Kohli’s at IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore and mutual friend of both men, intervened to settle their differences.
“Anyway, so, realised that de Villiers found out what he did and went up to him and said: ‘bud, why are you spitting at my teammate bud? That’s not on’.
“And two years later, he (Kohli) calls me aside playing (in) South Africa and said: ‘can we go have a drink at the end of the series? I want to just apologise for my actions’.
“Two years later in South Africa, he says he wants to apologise for what he did. We had a drink, (the) punchline is we drank till 3am in the morning.
“This is when he used to drink, now he is obviously converted a bit,” Elgar added.
Elgar finished with 5,347 runs in 86 Tests for the Proteas, including 14 tons.
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