Gautam Gambhir advises Indian cricket fans against ‘Player Worshipping’
Superstar culture in Indian cricket has been going on for a long-2 time. It goes back to post-India’s independence from oppressive British rule. Since then, superstars such as Bishan Singh Bedi, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsakrkar, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, etc are still remembered by Indian fans. However, they don’t remember the players who played around them.
Former India skipper Gautam Gambhir has spoken on the same and has urged the fans to stop worshipping the star players. He feels that it creates monsters inside the dressing room. The left-hander added that the only monster should be the India Cricket Team. Gambhir also expressed his concern by saying that the superstar culture never lets a newbie grow.
In the Idea Exchange with The Indian Express, Gambhir said “don’t create monsters in the dressing room. Only monsters should be Indian cricket, not an individual”.
It was unfortunate to see Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s performance got ignored: Gautam Gambhir
During the event, he was asked “Do you think that this whole hero worship chokes the next star to come up? Nobody has grown in that shadow. It was Mahendra Singh Dhoni earlier, it is Virat Kohli now”.
To which, the two-time World Cup winner pointed out the Asia Cup 2022 game between India and Afghanistan. In that game, the former India skipper scored his much-awaited 71st hundred. In the game, Bhuvenshwar Kumar picked a five-wicket haul. However, Kohli’s century was the only talk of the town and Kumar’s performance got overshadowed.
Gautam mentioned the same and said “When Kohli got a 100 and there was this young guy from a small town of Meerut [Bhuvneshwar Kumar], 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. But Kohli scores a 100 and there are celebrations everywhere in this country. 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.”
