Known for his unending controversies, former test cricketer Vinod Kambli was at it again. This time around, he allegedly manhandled a 59-year-old man in a Mumbai mall on Sunday.
Kambli reportedly manhandled is Raj Kumar Tiwari, the father of singer Ankit Tiwari and Ankur Tiwari, after the senior Tiwari had allegedly misbehaved with his wife Andrea Hewitt.
The incident was caught in the CCTV camera of the InOrbit Mall at Malad in north Mumbai.
“The man touched and brushed me inappropriately,” Andrea alleged. Her husband Kambli asked: “How anyone could tolerate such a thingIJ”
The matter reached the Bangur nagar police station at the Goregaon suburbs of Mumbai. However, no concrete action had been initiated by the police till Monday evening.
"We will not take the allegation ( made by Kambli’s wife Andrea Hewitt) lying down. The allegations are baseless," Sr Tiwari said. He also threatened to file a defamation suit against the Kambli and his wife.
It may be recalled that in May 2014, Ankit Tiwari's ex-girlfriend had accused him of rape and his brother of threatening. Though in April 2017, both the brothers were acquitted of all charges by the Mumbai Sessions Court.
Kambli – who played 17 Tests and scored 1084 runs at an impressive average of 54.20 and piled up 2477 runs in 104 ODIs (at an average of 32.59), played his last international match in 2000 and retired from first class cricket in 2011 – has had more his share of controversies over the years.
In July 2014, Kambli had landed in real trouble when he and wife were declared as “defaulters” by a local co-operative bank through a newspaper advertisement after they failed to return arrears amounting to the tune of Rs 50 against a loan taken by the bank’s Mumbai branch more than five years ago.
In November 2013, the Managing Committee of Jewel Cooperative Society, a housing society where he lives with several former Mumbai cricketers at Bandra in north-west Mumbai, had decided to move the state-run Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) for recovery of Rs 10 lakh in dues from Kambli.
Around the same time, the stylist left handed batsman was in the news for having gone to town expressing his disappointment at not having found a mention in Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell speech delivered after the latter 200th Test match at Wankhede stadium.
Kambli has had health issues over the years. Having undergone an angioplasty on two of his blocked arteries in July, 2012 at lilavati Hospital, the yesteryear cricketer survived a minor heart attack on November 29, 2013, after a circumspect women traffic police officer rushed him to lilavati Hospital at Bandra in north-west Mumbai just in time.
Kambli was driving a white Pajero from Chembur in north-east Mumbai to his Bandra residence, when he developed massive chest pain and pulled up his vehicle by the roadside at Sion on the Eastern Express Highway.