Gambhir feels hero-worship culture has been the primary reason behind India's ICC trophy drought.
However, former India opener Gautam Gambhir is not a fan of this hero-worship culture. In fact, has spoken against it every now and then and recently expressed his reservations once again.
According to Gambhir, this culture has prevailed because media talk about star cricketers like Virat Kohli so much that players like Suryakumar Yadav go unnoticed.
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“Aap Indian cricket ki baat kariye. Indian team ki baat honi zaruri hai. Hero worship nahi hona chahiye 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 mai utne followers nahi hai bakio ke 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.)," said Gambhir while speaking on the topic during his discussion on the India versus Pakistan match with Zee.
Despite having some of the top cricketers in their ranks, Team India have failed to win an ICC tournament since 2013 and Gambhir feels this hero-worship culture has been the primary reason behind the trophy drought.
"Indian team World Cup ke liye jaati hai toh hero worship nahi, India team ki worship kariye. Yahi sabse bara karan hai ki hum 2011 se 2022 tak ek bhi ICC trophy nahi jeet paaye kyunki hero worship se uth hi nahi paaye (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 ICC trophies between 2011 and 2022.),” he added.
Team India will open their T20 World Cup 2022 campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan at MCG on October 23.