Soon after the former India opening batter and Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) captain, Gautam Gambhir was roped in by the new Lucknow Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise as the team’s mentor, Sony Sports Network, owned by Sony Pictures Networks India, posted an extremely disparaging post against the former cricket icon, who is also a BJP MP.
The screenshot of the Tweet by Sony Sports, which the channel quietly deleted shortly after posting it, was shared on the micro-blogging site by popular social media user @iMac_too.
Why did @SonySportsIndia delete it? pic.twitter.com/FmXkHNEgs3
— iMac_too (@iMac_too) December 18, 2021
In the now-deleted post, Sony Sports wrote: “Clearly Supreme Leader is not paying this dude enough of money”. The Tweet was posted in response to a Tweet by a user @CricCrazyJohns in which the latter informed that Gautam Gambhir had been appointed as the mentor of the Lucknow IPL franchise.
Since Gautam Gambhir is a member of the Bhartiya Janata Party, Sony Sports implied that the ‘Supreme Leader,’ in an obvious reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is not paying the former cricketer enough, thus, compelling him to take up the post as the new head coach of the Lucknow IPL team.
The sports network discreetly deleted the Tweet minutes after it was posted, without giving any explanation or apology for its insensitive and rather unnecessary remark.
Meanwhile, Gautam Gambhir took to Twitter to thank Sanjiv Goenka and the RPSG Group for considering him for the post. “Thanks a lot to Dr Goenka and the RPSG Group for presenting me this wonderful opportunity in their setup. “The fire to win a contest still burns bright inside me, the desire to leave a winner’s legacy still kicks me 24×7. I will not be contesting for a dressing room but for the spirit and soul of Uttar Pradesh,” Gambhir said in his Tweet.
It’s a privilege to be in the contest again. Thanks Dr.Goenka for incl me in #LucknowIPLTeam as its mentor.The fire to win still burns bright inside me, the desire to leave a winner’s legacy still kicks me. I won’t be contesting for a dressing room but for the spirit & soul of UP
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) December 18, 2021
The owner of the yet to be named franchise, Sanjiv Goenka welcomed Gambhir into the RPSG family. “Gautam has an impeccable career record. I respect his cricketing mind and look forward to working with him,” he said.
The Lucknow franchise is one of the new teams in the IPL along with Ahmedabad.
Along with Gautam Gambhir, the Sanjiv Goenka franchise has also brought in former Zimbabwe captain Andy Flower as the head coach. Flower was previously assisting Anil Kumble at the Punjab Kings. Reports also suggest that the new franchise, which was bought by RP Sanjiv Goenka group for a whopping sum of Rs 7090 crore is expected to rope in KL Rahul as the new team captain.
