Mumbai Indians, who are yet to get off the mark in the points table, will play their first home match of IPL 2024 against the Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan Royals at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
India veteran all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin comes in support of Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya after he has been receiving the end of vicious trolling and booing, saying the fan wars are taking an ugly turn in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.
This all started when MI traded Hardik from Gujarat Titans and this has been seen as a coup and replacing Rohit Sharma as captain ahead of IPL 2024, Hardik was mercilessly subjected to boos and jeers by fans, who also used a discriminatory term for him at times, during the five-time champions’ first two games in Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, where they ended up on losing side.
“Neither has any role to play. Neither the franchise nor the player has a role to play in this at all. I think the responsibility and the onus lie on the fans,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
“Have you seen this happen in any other country? Have you seen Joe Root and Zak Crawley fans fight? Or have you seen Joe Root and Jos Buttler fans fight? It’s crazy. Have you seen Steve Smith and Pat Cummins fans fight in Australia? I have said this many times. This is cricket. This is a cinema culture. I know there are things like marketing, positioning and branding. I do not deny it. I do not believe in all this on my side but it is not wrong to indulge either. Fan wars should never go down this ugly route. One should remember which country these players represent–our country. So then what warrants a cricketer getting booed?” Ashwin added.
“I do not understand. If you don’t like a player and boo a player, why should a team come out to issue a clarification? We act like this has not happened before. (Sourav) Ganguly played under Sachin (Tendulkar) and vice versa. These two have both played under Rahul Dravid’s captaincy. These three have played under Anil Kumble and all of them have played under Dhoni. When they were under Dhoni, these players were cricket jambhavans (giants). Dhoni too played under Virat,” he said.
“We need to get our act together. You know what the problem is? We are all happy to sit in our houses, look outside and have someone else to pick up the trash. We do not want to bother doing it ourselves. We should correct ourselves first. This is real-time sports. Real-time sports have real-time emotions. How we go beyond that, counter it and find a balance to play cricket is what this is all about,” said Ashwin.
MI have started their season with two losses in two games against the Gujarat Titans (GT) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). Their next match is against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in their home arena of Wankhede Stadium on April 1.