Former Indian cricketer and two-time World Cup winner Gautam Gambhir has criticized the star worship going on among Indian cricket fans. Gambhir was angered by the idolization of superstars, forgetting the contribution of other members of the team. It was pointed out that the adoration that started when India won the World Cup in 1983 has finally reached Dhoni and Kohli.
“Don’t create monsters in the dressing room, not a person. Indian cricket is big. “
Gambhir cited the match against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup earlier this month as an example.
” The entire country celebrated former captain Kohli’s 1021-day long century drought. It was his first international century since November 2019 and his first century in T20 cricket. India had another incredible player in the game with his record five-wicket haul – Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
When Kohli got his 100, when there was this young man from a small town in Meerut who took five wickets, nobody even wanted to talk about him. This was very unfortunate. I was the only one who said that during that commentary. He bowled four overs and took five wickets and I don’t think anyone knows about that. But with Kohli scoring 100 runs, there are celebrations everywhere in the country.
” India needs to come out of this hero worship. Be it Indian cricket, be it politics, be it Delhi cricket. Hero worship should be stopped. We should worship Indian cricket,” he said.
Gambhir found that social media and broadcasters are behind this cult. Gambhir elaborated that since 1983, there has been this culture of “hero worship” in Indian cricket. People only talk about the then captain Kapil Dev. He pointed out that the same thing happened in 2007 and 2011 when India won the T20 World Cup and ODI World Cup under Dhoni’s leadership respectively.