Sunil Gavaskar, the legendary Indian cricketer, has launched a scathing attack on Virat Kohli for his recent comments about critics. Kohli had stated that he doesn’t pay attention to critics who question his strike rate and ability to play spin.
Gavaskar, speaking ahead of the RCB vs GT match on Saturday, took exception to Kohli’s remarks. He felt that such comments were a direct insult to the knowledge and experience of former cricketers who work as experts.
“Commentators questioned only when his strike rate was 118. I’m not too sure. I don’t watch too many matches, so I don’t know what the other commentators have said otherwise. But if you come and open and then have a strike of 118 when you get out in the 14th or the 15th over, I mean, if you want applause for that, that’s a little bit different,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
Gavaskar also criticized Kohli for responding to outside noise if he didn’t care about it. “All these guys talk about, ‘oh we don’t care about outside noise’. Accha! Then why are you replying to any outside noise or whatever it is. We all played a bit of cricket, not a lot of cricket. We don’t have agendas. We speak about what we see. We don’t necessarily have any likes and dislikes. Even if we have likes and dislikes, we actually speak on what is happening,” Gavaskar said.
Gavaskar even criticized IPL’s official broadcasters for showing Kohli’s interview time and again. “I hope Star Sports realizes that when that clip is shown, questioning the critics, the critics are your own commentators. For you to show the person belittling your own commentators, I’m not sure that’s a great thing. You need to realize you have shown it enough times, everybody’s got the message. I would be very disappointed if you show it once more.”
Gavaskar’s comments have sparked a debate on the role of critics in sports. Some believe that critics have a right to express their opinions, while others feel that they should be more respectful of players.
