Former Australian captain Steve Waugh labelled Indian skipper Virat Kohli's comments on Steve Smith as "strong". He felt that ICC should intervene in the matter and put an end to it once and for all.
“I wasn’t aware of exactly what happened — I don’t how it all played out. But yeah that was strong comments from Kohli, even though he didn’t say those words, he was inferring to it. I am not sure Smith would have enjoyed reading that statement.
"Both captains need to have a bit of a chat at some stage and need to realise that they are going to play tough. Both are patriotic captains but no point in playing up their arguments in press," he opined.
On whether Kohli had gone overboard, “That’s Virat Kohli, that’s what you guys love about him and you want him to lead your country. There is a fine line about revving up the crowd when the bowlers are running in. I am not sure Australian’s will be too happy about it. I don’t mind him revving the crowd up in between balls, but not when the bowlers running in to bowl.”
"These are couple of issues from both teams about how the game is played. It's being played in pretty good spirit but right now its bit on the edge," he added.
Former Australian great also called for ICC to intervene and put an end to the issue.
"Someone from ICC needs to look into the matter and bring it to a finality. look we need to move on," said Waugh.
When asked why he needs the cricket body’s intervention, he said, “Because we will be going back and forth for the next six days, more and more people will be involved in it. Then my opinion will get down in the paper and it will become another issue so ICC should resolve this and release a statement so we can all move on.”
“Smith admitted he made a mistake so there is no point in keep going on about it. It’s no good for the relationships for the 2 sides,” he added.
Waugh, who led Australia to 1999 World Cup victory, feels it’s a shame that the incident took the focus away from “a fantastic Test match”.
"It was a fantastic Test match. It's a shame we are focusing on one incident. I would go with what Steve has said. I would take him on face value. The best part was umpires stepped in and stopped at then and there," he said during 'Royal Stag Barrel Select Perfect Strokes'.
On Tuesday, a furious Kohli showed his frustration about the entire episode after the match in Bengaluru. "We have been inconsistent with the DRS but we take our decisions on the field, we don't ask for confirmation from the dressing room. I have seen it twice while batting. I have seen their players looking upstairs (dressing room). I told the umpires, this had to stop. I don't want to mention the word but it falls in that bracket. I would never do something like that on the cricket field," Kohli said.
Waugh was happy that Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland has issued a strong statement supporting its captain but at the same time said that the board CEO knows “what happened was wrong.”
"Of course, he is the captain of our country and from the chairman (CEO) of the board I would expect that. At the same stage, James Sutherland would have also realised what happened yesterday was wrong and shouldn't happen again and I am sure wouldn't happen again. That's what we are going take from this that lesson has been learnt," he explains.
Tennis legend Boris Becker, 2008 Olympic Gold medallist Abhinav Bindra and Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs was also present at the event.