India’s hero of the 2011 World Cup final win Gautam Gambhir has taken a dig at the media and fans for celebrating MS Dhoni’s knock of 91* against Sri Lanka in the summit clash too much, while forgetting contributions from others like Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel.
India was the first nation ever to win the ODI World Cup as a host when they defeated Sri Lanka in the final of the tournament on April 2, 2011, at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.
Sri Lanka had batted first and posted 274/6 with Mahela Jayawardene scoring a brilliant century, while Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh took two wickets each.
In reply, Lasith Malinga sent back Sachin Tendulkar (18) and Virender Sehwag (0) early in the innings who were followed by Virat Kohli (35). But Gautam Gambhir anchored one end with his brilliant 97-run knock and added 109 runs for the 4th wicket with MS Dhoni, who finished the job with a majestic 91*.
In a conversation with Boria Majumdar on RevSportz, Gautam Gambhir spoke about his knock of 97 in the final, when asked whether it bothered him he couldn’t score a century.
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“It just doesn’t matter if I got the hundred or not. All that matters is if India won the World Cup. We don’t play an individual sport. It is a team sport, and individual achievements are only important if they are of use to the team. This innings is far more important to me because it helped India win the final. I will tell you one thing straight.
If I had got out for a low score and India won, I would be as happy. But If I got the 100 and India lost, the 100 would be of no value whatsoever to me. We are far too obsessed with individual milestones in India, and in doing so, the focus on occasions moves from the larger goal. The bigger picture of how your team has done is lost on occasions. That’s the only thing that is important in team sport,” Gambhir said.
He was also asked whether his knock of 97 and partnerships with Kohli and Dhoni are not celebrated enough, Gambhir said the media doesn’t celebrate the contributions of Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, and other players as well and mostly MS Dhoni’s knock and his six to win the final is highlighted.
“Do we celebrate Yuvraj Singh enough for what he did in the 2011 World Cup with all the health concerns he had? Do we celebrate Zaheer Khan’s opening spell enough? To start a World Cup final with four maiden overs is incredible, and yet he isn’t given enough credit. Do we celebrate Sachin Tendulkar’s efforts enough? Yes, we celebrate him and the win, but how many remember he was the highest scorer in the World Cup with two hundreds to his name? Do we celebrate Harbhajan Singh’s spell against Pakistan in Mohali, or Suresh Raina’s innings against Australia in Ahmedabad and Pakistan in Mohali? Both these innings were match-winning efforts,” Gambhir said.
“While we celebrate MS Dhoni’s innings in the final, we should celebrate these other efforts as much. No one innings could win India the trophy. It was a collective effort and should be celebrated as such. It is because of social media that we don’t do it. Social media is biased and we all know that. But social media doesn’t make it the truth. There is always a tendency on social media to celebrate individuals more than the team. In doing so, what happens is we don’t celebrate key performers who had as much a part to play. And that’s an issue for sure. All I will say is we should celebrate the entire team. While we celebrate Dhoni, we should also celebrate the others who all played very important roles in the Indian win,” he added.
(RevSportz inputs)
