On Friday, legendary Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar found himself in the middle of a controversy for allegedly making an unsavoury comment against Virat Kohli and his wife Anushka Sharma after RCB captain’s worst performance during an IPL game on Thursday.
While commentating during the IPL match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab, the former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar criticised Virat Kohli over his poor performance against Kings XI Punjab after the RCB captain dropped two important catches and also got out much early in the game.
Gavaskar, who was commentating when Virat Kohli came to bat at the third over of the second innings, made a remark that involved Virat Kohli’s actor wife Anushka.
Referring to the poor form of Virat Kohli, Gavaskar wittingly said, “Lockdown tha to sirf Anushka ki bowling ki practice ki unhone, wo video dekhi hai, usse to kuch nahi hona hai.” (He only faced Anushka’s bowling during the lockdown, I have watched that video, nothing is going to happen from that)”. Sunil Gavaskar was referring to a video that had gone viral on social media in May this year, where Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma were seen playing cricket on the terrace of their house. A full Lockdown was in force at that time, and sportspersons were not allowed to visit playgrounds.
Here is the video. He did not say anything double meaning at the first place. pic.twitter.com/TqyI2PJVtd
— Cabinet Minister, Ministry of Memes, India (@__memenist) September 25, 2020
A day later, on Friday, media networks and TV channels went on to make misleading claim that the legendary batsman had made unsavoury remarks against Virat Kohli.
Addition to various media networks, social media users too descended on Twitter to slam Gavaskar for his alleged sexist comment on Anushka Sharma and also called BCCI for the sacking of Sunil Gavaskar from the commentary team.
I usually respect cricketers a lot and too legendary cricketers
— Aravind (@stranger2898) September 25, 2020
Bt this crook low life son of a b***h gavaskar takes a toll on kohli’s personal life
U hav totally lost ur respect that u hav earned in the years 🙏🙏 #RCBvKXIP #IPL2020 pic.twitter.com/VpEPYVkQnc
Passing distasteful remarks about Anushka Sharma while sitting in a commentary box should not be overlooked. You can be legend Sunil Gavaskar, but you have no right to drag the families of players in these things that too in such a bizarre manner. Hope @BCCI is looking into it.
— Aakib (@aakib_9594) September 25, 2020
Fact-Check
Contrary to the media outrage against the legendary batsman, in reality, Sunil Gavaskar did not make any sexist or vulgar remark against Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma.
In fact, Sunil Gavaskar was referring to the viral video of the couple playing cricket that had surfaced during the country’s coronavirus lockdown.
Here is the video that Sunil Gavaskar was referring to during his commentary on Thursday.
Sunil Gavaskar was indeed referring to the video of Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma playing on top of their residence during the coronavirus lockdown contrary to the claims of various social media users who attributed vulgar comments to the former Indian captain.
