5 Legendary Cricketers Whom Indian Fans Don’t Like: There is no questioning in the fact that AB de Villiers is the most loved non-Indian cricketer in India. Fans in the country adore the South African legend for his on-field heroics and his personality away from the ground.
Indian fans are very emotional when it comes to cricketers be it Indian or foreign ones; they express their love and hate or dislike for any cricketer in spate on social media. Indians have always welcomed the overseas stars in the IPL with great hospitality and showered immense love on them.
While they have rarely shown dislike to anyone, there are a few big international names that even Indian fans dislike and have trolled them heavily.
Andrew Symonds
Andrew Symonds’ remembered-for-wrong-reasons tussle with star India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh made the Australian a national villain in India. The ‘monkeygate’ scandal took place in the 2008 Sydney Test.
The Aussie all-rounder had a heated exchange with the Indian spinner, during which Symonds alleged that Harbhajan called him a “monkey” (a racist remark). Harbhajan was initially handed a three-match ban, which was later overturned on appeal. Although the pair later played together for Mumbai Indians, Symonds still remains a disliked cricketer among Indian fans.
Ricky Ponting
While the Indian fans have always respected Ricky Ponting as a batsman – he did like to score against India – they have been left fuming by his attitude on the field. Ponting was also involved in the ‘mokeygate’ fiasco and sided with Symonds despite no clear evidence against Harbhajan.
Ponting acts as a captain – having an altercation with the batsman or even the umpire – and a fielder – claiming unclear catches – have often not gone down well with Indians who passionately follow the sport and hope for the best behaviour on the field.
Andrew Flintoff
While many English players have brought out the rage, none did as Andrew Flintoff when the burly all-rounder took off his shirt and ran wildly in celebration after winning a close game against India in front of a packed Wankhede crowd.
A few months later, Sourav Ganguly, the then India captain, had his revenge in style: he did a similar shirt-wave celebration after India defeated England in the Natwest series final.
Mushfiqur Rahim is undeniably the most disliked non-Indian cricketer in India. What he did after India’s loss to West Indies in the 2016 T20 World Cup semi-final was unforgivable. Rahim celebrated and expressed happiness over West Indies’ win against India, who had earlier eliminated Bangladesh when Rahim was unable to finish the chase.
Rahim then had to face the wrath of the Indian fans who have since then trolled him heavily with each failure. His famous ‘Nagin’ dance is also trolled copiously.
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