Gautam Gambhir was in the eye of a controversial storm once again after a video of him went viral where the former India cricketer was seen making an obscene gesture towards a group of fans who were seemingly chanting the name of a cricketer.
Reacting to the controversy, Gambhir, however, said on Monday that he was reacting to anti-India slogans which were given by some Pakistani fans in the crowd.
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“What is shown on social media has no truth in it because people show whatever they want to show. The truth about the video that went viral is that if you raise anti-India slogans and speak about Kashmir then the person before you will obviously react and not smile and leave. There were 2-3 Pakistanis there who were speaking anti-India things and things on Kashmir. So, it was my natural reaction. I can’t hear anything against my country. So, that was my reaction,” he said.
#WATCH | Kandy, Sri Lanka | On his recent viral video during Asia Cup 2023, former cricketer and BJP MP Gautam Gambhir says, “What is shown on social media has no truth in it because people show whatever they want to show. The truth about the video that went viral is that if you… pic.twitter.com/RX4MJVhmyd
— ANI (@ANI) September 4, 2023
The former player also shared a tweet where he said, “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes Not everything is as it seems. Any Indian would react how I did to the kind of slogans used against our nation. I love our players & I love my country.”
“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes”.
Not everything is as it seems. Any Indian would react how I did to the kind of slogans used against our nation. I love our players & I love my country. 🇮🇳🇮🇳
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) September 4, 2023
A few days ago, Gambhir had said that he is against cricketers displaying too much camaraderie on the field with players of the rival team in the middle of games.
Gambhir’s comments had come during the India vs Pakistan game on September 2. The southpaw, who was part of the Indian cricket team which won the 2011 Cricket World Cup, had blamed franchise cricket as one of the reasons why cricket games these days don’t have too much aggression.
“When you play on the field for your national team, you must leave the friendship outside the boundary ropes. Game face hona zaroori hai. Dosti bahaar rehni chahiye. There has to be an aggression in the eyes of both sets of players. You can be as friendly as you want after those six or seven hours of cricket. Those hours are very important, because you’re not just representing yourself, you’re representing a nation of over a billion,” Gambhir said in the mid-innings show on Star Sports. “These days you see players of rival teams patting each other on the back and exchanging fist bumps during a match. You would never see that a few years ago. Aap friendly match hi khel rahe ho,” he had said.
indianexpress.com
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