'This is cinema culture' - R Ashwin calls out toxic fan war; backs Hardik Pandya amidst ongoing IPL captaincy debacle
Ravichandran Ashwin recently addressed a fan’s question on his YouTube channel while expressing his disappointment towards the cricket fans for booing Hardik Pandya
Ravichandran Ashwin recently addressed a fan’s question on his YouTube channel while expressing his disappointment towards the cricket fans for booing and disregarding Hardik Pandya as the new captain. The Mumbai Indians franchise has undergone a major transformation since Pandya has replaced Rohit Sharma as the captain.
The captaincy transition in the franchise has not been a smooth ride and Pandya has been questioned for his ambiguous decisions that has led Mumbai to lose their first two matches in IPL 2024. Ashwin openly criticised the fans for shaming the Indian all-rounder and backed Hardik Pandya.
In a recent video on his channel, Ashwin stated that he has never seen ugly fan wars in any country except for India. He said,
“Neither has any role to play. Neither the franchise nor the player has a role to play in this at all. I think the responsibility and the onus lies on the fans. Have you seen this happen in any other country? Have you seen Joe Root and Zak Crawley fans fight? Or have you seen Joe Root and Jos Buttler fans fight? It’s crazy. Have you seen Steve Smith and Pat Cummins fans fight in Australia? I’ve said this many times. This is cricket. This is cinema culture.”
Ravichandran Ashwin Navigates Captaincy Changes under Legends within the Indian Team
Ashwin highlighted that fan wars should not get ugly and stoop down to the level that they end up insulting the players who play for their national team and are their heroes. He also emphasised that Pandya has won matches in the past for India and would continue to do so in the future, hence, he should not be shamed.
Ashwin added, “I know there are things like marketing, positioning and branding. I don’t deny it. I don’t believe in all this on my side but it’s not wrong to indulge either. Fan wars should never go in this ugly a route. One should remember which country these players represent- our country. So then what warrants a cricketer getting booed?”
While talking about legendary Indian cricketers playing under the leadership of one another, the Indian spinner further discussed,
“I don’t understand. If you don’t like a player and boo a player, why should a team come out to issue a clarification? We act like this has not happened before. (Sourav) Ganguly played under Sachin (Tendulkar) and vice versa. These two have both played under Rahul Dravid’s captaincy. These three have played under Anil Kumble and all of them have played under Dhoni. When they were under Dhoni, these players were cricket jambhavans (giants). Dhoni too played under Virat.”