'Biggest reason why India didn’t win ICC tournament from 2011 to 2022': Gautam Gambhir slams hero worship

Former India star batter Gautam Gambhir has slammed hero worshipping in Indian cricket, calling it the “biggest reason” why India couldn’t win an ICC tournament since the 2011 World Cup win.

Asked about hero worship in Indian cricket at a T20 World Cup 2022 cricket show by Zee News, Gambhir said that this is a thing which needs to change not just in cricket but across India. 

“We need to talk about cricket. Talking about the Indian cricket team is important, hero worship is not,” he said, adding that it was the media responsible for making brands. 

“Suryakumar Yadav has performed better than other top 6 Indian batters in the last year,” Gambhir said, adding, “but we don’t talk about Suryakumar Yadav that much probably because he has the least amount of social media followers.”

In the same interview while talking about Rohit Sharma’s captaincy, the left-handed former opener said the Indian T20 World Cup 2022 skipper is the best around and his most IPL trophies should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind. However, he said that it is not upto Rohit Sharma alone to make his plan of winning the WC successful as it is upto the other players in a team. 

Captains don’t alone win world cups, Gambhir said. 

“Unfortunately, what happens in India is that if we win the world cup, and I hope we do, all credit will be showered over Rohit Sharma. Rohit Sharma won't win the world cup, India will win the world cup," he said.

"When we won the world cup in 2007 and 2011, we said MS Dhoni won the cup. When we won in 83 we said Kapil Dev won it. No, India had won. Because other team players also took catches, bowled and scored runs." 

"So I hope that if we win the world cup, it is India who wins and not just Rohit Sharma," he said to an applause from the crowd at the event.

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