Former Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has called for the need to normalise things in Indian cricket. His remarks come amid the calls for ending superstar culture within the team. It gained momentum following India’s drubbing at the hands of Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Ashwin against superstardom in Indian cricket
In a video on his YouTube channel, Ashwin noted that players were not actors and said that superstardom within the Indian cricket team must not be encouraged. The Tamil Nadu spinner said that cricketers should instead be someone that the common people can resonate with. He stressed for the urgent need to normalise things going forward.
“It is important to normalise things in Indian cricket. We must not encourage this superstardom and super celebrities within the Indian cricket team. We must normalise all these things going forward. We are cricketers. We are not actors or superstars. We are sportspersons, and we must be someone that the common people should resonate with, and can compare themselves with,” Ashwin said.
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“For example if you are a Rohit Sharma or a Virat Kohli, who have achieved so much. When you hit one more century, it is not just about your achievement anymore. It should be the business as usual, and our goals should be bigger than these achievements,” he added.
As for the current Indian Cricket Team, there are a plethora of superstars in the team. And Gambhir is now determined to bring an end to his culture where a player starts to believe that he is probably bigger than the team. The first step to stop it is taking more control of the matters concerning the players.
The BCCI recently cracked the whip on the superstar culture, empowering Gambhir with more powers while subjecting players to strict rules. It involves strict SOPs on families traveling with players, carrying excessive baggage, ban on travel of personal chefs and hair stylists with the players among others.
