“If the BCCI president (Ganguly) is doing it, you can’t expect other players not to do it. “
Known for his brutally unapologetic and honest remarks, Gautam Gambhir has made yet another controversial remark. While speaking at The Indian Express Idea Exchange program, the former cricketer stated that the hero worship in Indian cricket is not a great thing for the team and it needs to end.
Giving an example of Virat Kohli’s century against Afghanistan in Asia Cup, Gambhir said,” When Kohli got a 100 (at Asia Cup) and there was this young guy (Bhuvneshwar) from a small town of Meerut, who also managed to get five wickets, no one even bothered to speak about him.”
“This was so unfortunate. I was the only one, during that commentary stint, who said that. He bowled four overs and got five wickets and I don’t think anyone knows about that,” Gambhir told the Indian Express.
It is known that Virat scored an international hundred after a gap of three long years. However, Bhuvi had also bowled his career-best spell of 5 wickets for 4 runs but didn’t get enough coverage.
Hero Worship is not a new thing in Indian cricket
Gambhir mentioned that he was not pointing out a single person and it was not a new phenomenon. According to him, it all started when team India won the 1983 world cup.
The former opener believed that it was the combined effort of team India but the media portrayed only Kapil Dev as the face of the victory. Then when India conquered the 2007 ICC T20 World Cup and 2011 World Cup, it was Dhoni all over the news.
The former opener believes there are two most important reasons for that;
- The social media following and
- The media includes news portals, channels and broadcasters.
” If you keep talking about one person day in and day out, it eventually becomes a brand,” stated Gambhir further.”
Broadcasters are notorious for using a particular player’s name to an unbelievable extent. He felt disappointed that nobody appreciated the small contributions of fellow players and he tried to change this in his captaincy stint with Kolkata Knight Riders.
Gautam On Betting apps
The former opener said that the promotion of betting apps is not something he supports. The fantasy apps are on the surge in the last couple of years or more. Gautam Gambhir felt that either the government or authorities should ban the fantasy apps or there should not be questions about the players promoting these apps.
“If the BCCI president (Ganguly) is doing it, you can’t expect other players not to do it. If he says that no one should be allowed to do it, I think everyone should follow that … It has to come from the top.”
For the record, Ganguly promotes My Circle 11, Kohli does MPL, Rahul can be seen in Gamezy and the likes of Dhoni, Pandya, and Pant have promoted Dream 11 in the past.
Even, the ex-cricketer turned politician himself has promoted fantasy apps earlier. However, on this question, Gambhir told the Indian Express that he made sure there was no cash prize given and prizes were given in the form of gift hampers. “Fantasy and betting are probably a little similar, but not exactly the same,” added Gambhir.
On alcohol, tobacco
The former cricketer also gave his views on the promotion of alcohol, tobacco and other things. He cited that he, personally doesn’t support the promotion of these things and it was their collective responsibility to not promote such things.
