Gautam Gambhir has been very vocal about the ‘hero-worship’ culture in Indian cricket. In a recent interview, ahead of Team India’s 20-20 World Cup campaign in Australia against arch-rivals Pakistan at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground, Gambhir spoke on the subject once more. This time he made a big statement about Virat Kohli, comparing him to one of his World Cup teammates.
Gambhir brought up the subject with Zee during their discussion of the India-Pakistan match. He believes that fans should start talking about the Indian cricket team as a whole, rather than individual players, as has been common due to media coverage that has turned these players into brands. Gambhir illustrated his point by comparing Suryakumar Yadav to some of India’s top cricketers, including Kohli.
“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. 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
(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. 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 said.
Indian team World Cup kiliye jaati hai toh hero worship nehin: Gautam Gambhir
Gambhir concluded his argument by claiming that ‘hero worship’ is the primary cause of India’s trophy drought. “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 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 trophies between 2011 and 2022.),” he added.
