File photo of Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni
Time and again, former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir highlighted how ‘her worship’ remains a problem in Indian cricket. Whenever individual players get more importance for victories over teams, Gambhir shakes his head in disbelief, asking for the trend to be stopped. The cricketer-turned-politician had famously said that the credit for India’s ODI World Cup triumph in 2011 should be given to the entire team and not an individual (MS Dhoni). The Gambhir vs Dhoni chatter on social media is back after former India pacer Praveen Kumar shared his opinion on the topic.
“India needs to come out of this hero worship. Whether it’s Indian cricket, whether it’s politics, whether it’s Delhi cricket. We have to stop worshipping heroes. The only thing that we need to worship is Indian cricket, or for that matter Delhi or India. Who created that? It is created by two things. First, by social media followers, which is probably the fakest thing in this country. Second, by the media and the broadcasters,” Gambhir had said.
Praveen Kumar echoed Gambhir’s comments, suggesting cricket isn’t an individual sport like wrestling. Hence, players like Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, and Gautam Gambhir should get more credit for India’s glory moments in the sport.
“Gautam bhai is absolutely right,” Praveen said in an interview.
“This is not wrestling or any other individual sport. One man cannot win you a match. Yuvraj Singh had taken 15 wickets, scored so many runs. Zaheer Khan took 21 wickets. Gautam Gambhir scored runs in 2007 and 2011 finals. Dhoni scored runs in 2011 finals. A team wins only when at least three of its batters are in form and at least two bowlers are picking wickets. Be it a Test, ODI or T20I. One player can’t win you tournaments,” he said.
“The hero culture has always been there in Indian cricket. I think it’s been there since 1980s. This is a wrong tendency. Cricketers at times become bigger than cricket. The one who has more brand support gets more limelight,” he added.
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