Hyderabad: Rajasthan Royals (RR) spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has called for a stop on fan wars after Hardik Pandya was booed recently in Mumbai Indians’ IPL fixtures of the ongoing season. Hardik took over the captaincy from Rohit Sharma, who has led the team to five titles during his tenure. MI have faced defeats in their first couple of games in the tournament. Hardik was booed by the Ahmedabad crowd during the MI’s tournament opener against Gujarat Titans (GT). Also, he has faced backlash on social media after the team ended with zero points after playing two matches so far this season.
Reflecting on the sequence of events, Indian cricketer R Ashwin has opined that the fan war is turning out to be ugly. "Neither has any role to play in it. I think it is the responsibility and onus of the fans. Fan wars are turning so ugly. It is very sad to point out that in our comments section, people talk about Kohli and Dhoni. They're both legends. They're Indian team legends."
"Have you seen in any other country where Joe Root and Zak Crawley fans fighting? It's crazy, I don't understand. Do Steve Smith and Pat Cummins fans fight in Australia?"
"This is cricket. I repeat this, this is a complete cinema culture. But, fan wars shouldn't turn ugly. These guys are our cricketers. Why do you boo your player?" said Ashwin.
Further elaborating his point, Ashwin cited examples of the times when Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly played under Rahul Dravid and also these three players played under the leadership of MS Dhoni.
"Why are you pretending like this hasn't happened before? Sachin Tendulkar has played under Ganguly, and both men played under Rahul Dravid. All of them have played under MS Dhoni as well."
RR will play against MI on April 1 in their next game in Mumbai.
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