Gautam Gambhir lashes out at media for promoting the hero-worship culture

Gautam Gambhir: (Image Source: Twitter)

Former Indian cricketer, Gautam Gambhir has, once again, talked about the hero-worship culture in Indian cricket. Ahead of the 20-20 World Cup 2022, Gambhir has said that the fans shouldn’t be talking about the individuals but rather give importance to the entire team. 

He also took the reference of Suryakumar Yadav to support his statement. Gambhir highlighted that Suryakumar Yadav is India’s best performer in T20 internationals in the last one year but no would talk about him as he doesn’t have a lot of followers on his social media handle. 

"Aap Indian cricket ki baat kariye. Indian team ki baat honi zaruri hai. Hero worship nahi hona chaiye par hota hai kyunki media brands banati hai. Suryakumar Yadav ka pichle ek saal mein jo pradarshan raha hai Indian team ke liye woh, mujhe lagta hai ki jo 6 ballebaaz hai unse better hai. But aapne usske baare mein ek bhi sawal nahi pucha. Kyunki uske paas social media mein utne followers nehi hai bakioke muqable (Talk about Indian cricket. We should all be talking about the Indian team. We should stop hero worship. It shouldn't be there at all, but it's still prevelant because media transform these players into brands. Suryakumar Yadav's performance, in the last one year, has been better than all those six batters. But you did not ask me a single question about him. It is because he does not have as many followers on social media compared to other players.) Gambhir said. 

Aapne pehla naam Virat Kohli ka liya, Suryakumar ka nahi liya. Virat ke baad shayad aap Rohit ka leti ya KL Rahul ka leti. But performance wise, Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar ke ilawa team mein aur kisike paas bhi nahin hai (Even you first took the name of Virat Kohli, not Suryakumar. May be, Rohit Sharma would be next, then KL Rahul. But based on performance, Suryakumar, and Hardik Pandya has been the best in the Indian team.)," he added.

Gambhir went to say that India haven’t been able to win a single World Cup title since 2011 because of the hero-worship culture prevalent in the country. 

"Indian team World Cup kiliye jaati hai toh hero worship nehin. India team ki worship kariye. Yehi sabse bara karan hai ki hum 2011 se 2022 tak ek bhi ICC trophy nehin jeet paaye kyunki hero worship se uth hi nehi paye (When the Indian team leaves for World Cup, then we should all stop this hero worship. Worship the team. In fact, this has been the main reason why India have not been able to win any ICC trophies between 2011 and 2022.),” he added.