Veteran Bollywood actor Sonu Sood has posted a hard-hitting Insta story in support of Hardik Pandya, and speaking up against the vitriol that has been spewed by a section of fans on social media and on the grounds during the IPL 2024 so far.
Hardik Pandya, the new Mumbai Indians captain who replaced Rohit Sharma as the MI skipper, was heavily booed at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad and the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. Fans are outraged at Pandya taking over the MI captaincy of Rohit Sharma.
The social media trolling and jokes since the appointment of Pandya as the new MI captain spilled on the grounds as he was booed and name-called with casteist slurs, etc. Since the game against SRH in Hyderabad, there has been support offered to Hardik Pandya by journalists and prominent figures of the country.
One of them is Sonu Sood, who took to his Instagram story to remind the fans that Pandya is an India cricketer too, and it doesn’t matter which franchise he plays for, he remains a hero of the nation.
Sonu Sood wrote on his social media: “We should respect our players. Players who made us proud, players who made our country proud. One day you cheer for them, next day you boo them.
It’s not they, it’s us who fail.
I love cricket.
I love every cricketer who represents my country.
Doesn’t matter which franchise he plays for.
Doesn’t matter whether he’s plays as a Captain or he’s the 15th man in a team.
They are our Heroes”
Check out Sood’s message for the fans here about Pandya:
We should respect our players. Players who made us proud, players who made our country proud. One day you cheer for them, next day you boo them.
It’s not they, it’s us who fail.
I love cricket.
I love every cricketer who represents my country.
Doesn’t matter which franchise…— sonu sood (@SonuSood) March 29, 2024
Steve Smith suggests Hardik Pandya to “block it out, it’s all irrelevant”
Australia star batter Steve Smith has suggested Hardik Pandya “block out” the outside noise as it’s “all irrelevant”. Smith, who himself suffered heavy booing and heckling from the fans after his return from a year-long ban for ball-tampering, understands what Pandya must be going through right now.
“I’d try and just say, to block it out, it’s all irrelevant,” Smith said on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut show. “No one outside knows what you are going through. No one [from outside] is in that change room.”
“So is it affecting him [Hardik]? Maybe. It’s possible. He probably hasn’t experienced that before in, in any walk of life. So it’s natural, I suppose, and particularly being in India and a star Indian player, to be in that position where some fans are booing you, it’s certainly something he wouldn’t have experienced.”
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