A seemingly innocent and totally unplanned comment was made by tennis star Maria Sharapova stating that she was not aware of who cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar was. Well, if one looks at it from the perspective of gauging one’s knowledge of world affairs, then Sharapova surely hit rock bottom by confessing that she did not know of one of the most iconic figures of cricket. Of course, she plays tennis and is a star herself and this reflects poorly on her general knowledge.
But what followed this casual statement of hers is a deluge of hate mail from the fans of cricket god Sachin Tendulkar.
Instead of laughing off her ignorance, they have transformed the entire scenario into a hate campaign stooping down to levels unheard of before. But this public outpouring of rage and hate on social media circles also showcases the double-faced attitude of a majority of Indians who are totally clueless about our national game hockey and who captains it. In fact, some of our very own Bollywood stars do not know who our President is. And more importantly, the anger shows the patriarchal mindset of men who are out to demean a person only because she is a woman.
In a rather shameful development, Twitter and Facebook have been replete with messages that are not even print-worthy to simply show how sick they are. In fact, these devil’s advocates should widen their own knowledge base and accept that it is only Indians who are obsessed with cricket and make demi-gods out of cricket stars. The rest of the world enjoys a lot of other sports like football, rugby, tennis, Formula 1 Racing, regatta, etc.
In fact, if the Indian cricketers are asked about Sardara Singh, they will draw a blank as they are not aware that he is the captain of the Indian hockey team. Similarly, what will such people say about cricketers like Virendra Sehwag who has confessed that they did not know the names of cricket legends like Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy.
So, it can be safely concluded that while Sharapova made an innocent confession, the outburst publicly displays the spite and hate in the minds of people who try to get away with unpardonable behavior in the garb of being ‘fans’ and ‘cricket lovers’.
Written By Manoj
