File image of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant.© AFP
While India continues to be the hub for world cricket, possessing over 90 per cent of cricket fans over the world, it has also resulted in certain Indian cricketers having extremely passionate fanbases. Be it Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma, Indian cricket’s greatest icons have always had massive followings. However, legendary retired Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin believes that clashes between fans of two players often leads to toxic fan wars on social media, and such should be avoided.
In the modern generation, debate and discussion between fans often get heated on social media, and Ashwin revealed his displeasure about it.
“Fan wars on social media are becoming very toxic. I have always said, let’s discuss cricket as cricket and not like the brand value of a player. Liking one player more doesn’t mean you go on abusing others. These fan wars are a new trend,” Ashwin said, speaking on his own YouTube channel.
Ashwin stated that he used to also be a passionate fan of Sachin Tendulkar, but that did not mean that he would speak ill of Rahul Dravid or any other cricketer.
“Take for example, as a cricket fan, I used to be a big fan of Sachin Tendulkar. That doesn’t mean I will talk poorly of Rahul Dravid. I like Rahul Dravid too, but I liked Sachin very much. And I consider Anil bhai (Anil Kumble) as a role model. I looked up to Harbhajan Singh too,” Ashwin added.
Debate and discussion surrounding Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in particular have been particularly rife following the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The two stalwarts of Indian cricket see their future up in the air, specially in Test cricket, following poor form against New Zealand and Australia.
That being said, the duo are still expected to play a crucial role as India bid to win a record third Champions Trophy.
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