Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has spoken powerfully against former Pakistan and former Australian players using the name of the Indian cricket team and its players, in particular Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, to gain traction and more reach on their respective YouTube and other social media channels.
Since the pandemic started, a lot of former cricketers have opened their accounts on YouTube and created channels where they speak about cricket, but mostly they speak about Team India and Indian players. This is to target the huge amount of audience in India and gain more reach from the Indian cricket fans.
That is the way they have to cater to their audience: Sunil Gavaskar
This seems to now have finally triggered Sunil Gavaskar, who slammed these former cricketers of other nations, and also their media for constantly talking about Indian players. Gavaskar was in particular severe against the ex-Pakistan cricketers who regularly speak on Rohit Sharma vs Shaheen Afridi, and Virat Kohli vs Babar Azam battles and give their opinions on these topics.
“If you see the statements that come out from their side…sadly our media gives them the prominence. We have Pakistan players, and Australian players selecting Indian team. How is it their concern? Do any Indian players go and select the Australian or the Pakistan team? It’s none of our business. But we allow that,” Sunil Gavaskar said on Sports Today.
“From there it’s always Babar is better than Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma; Shaheen Afridi is better than so and so. Inzamam-ul-haq is better than Sachin Tendulkar. For them, they are always better than us. That is the way they have to cater to their audience.”
Sunil Gavaskar also requested the Indian media and fans to ignore them and not give them the reach.
“Don’t give them space in your papers. You have a South Africa saying a player should be in your team. You have an Australian saying. It happens too often. They say who should bat at no. 3 or no. 4. C’mon, we don’t need your advice,” the 1983 World Cup winning batsman added.
