Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan has came out in support of Sunil Gavaskar after the latter was criticised for a remark he made about actor Anushka Sharma helping her husband Virat Kohli with practice during lockdown.
Several people have backed the former Indian captain after a video of him commentating during the Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore match on Thursday, 24 September, was uploaded on the internet, suggesting that there was no malicious intent in the reference.
After a controversy erupted around the remark, Gavaskar cleared the air and said the people were just trying to make headlines and asked everyone to listen to the video again to check if he was being sexist or not.
"As you hear from the commentary, Aakash [Chopra] and I were doing commentary for a Hindi channel. And Aakash was talking about the fact that there has been very little chance for proper practice for everybody. That has actually shown in the rustiness of some of the players in their first matches," Gavaskar told India Today.
"Rohit [Sharma] didn't strike the ball well in his first match, MSD [Mahendra Singh Dhoni] didn't strike the ball well, Virat [Kohli] also didn't strike the ball. Most of the batsmen have because of the lack of practice," he said.
Gavaskar further explained. "That was the point that was being made. Virat also had no practice and the only practice that they had when they were seen them playing in their building compound and Anushka was bowling to him. That's what I said," he said.
Pathan, senior cricket expert Joy Bhattacharjya and filmmaker Hansal Mehta came out in support of Gavaskar and said that the former Indian captain was a ‘gentleman’.
“Always respect Sunil Gavaskar sir always,” wrote Pathan in a tweet.
Mehta wrote, “I've known Sunil for many years. And known him to be a gentleman”.
“Gavaskar's exact words were that Virat was so desperate for practice that he was playing cricket in the lockdown with [Anushka] & neighbours had actually taken a video of that. What exactly did he say that was demeaning? Or did you hear something that I obviously missed?” tweeted senior journalist Joy Bhattacharjya.
Anushka Sharma had responded to the whole situation on Friday morning, after which people said that it was a strong reaction since it was based on a misquoted accusation. However, her simple request was to not get dragged into cricket time and again.
Not only this, Sunil Gavaskar’s son Rohan Gavaskar too joined the conversation and took a dig at the whole controversy signalling that people jump to the conclusions very easily before understanding the situation with clarity.
After the clarification issued by Sunil Gavaskar, #WeSupportGavaskar started trending.
Here are some of the reactions:
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