The former India opener and 2011 World Cup Winner Gautam Gambhir often makes it to the headlines for his outspoken behaviour. The Delhi-born took the cricketing world by storm yet again for his recent crackdown on the ex-cricketers over Pan Masala endorsements.
It is worth mentioning that many veteran cricketers, including Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Virender Sehwag and Chris Gayle, were seen promoting pan masala products during the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, and they were even called out by the fans for their advertisement choices.
On being asked about the same in an interview with News18 India, Gambhir lashed out at all those ex-athletes who featured in the pan masala endorsements. The 41-year-old termed such behaviour disgusting and disappointing. He further suggested kids to choose their role models wisely and opined that there are many more ways to make money than to endorse such harmful products.
“I never thought in my life a cricketer would do a pan masala ad. It’s disgusting and disappointing. That is why I say, choose your role models carefully. What example are you setting?,” said Gambhir.
“One gets recognised not by their name, but by the work they do. Crores of kids are watching you. Money is not so important that you will end up doing a Pan Masala ad. There are so many other ways to make money. You should have the courage to let go of a big pay cheque rather than do such things,” he added.
In the same interview, the two-time IPL winner also spoke about India being an individual-obsessed country.
“Our country is not team obsessed, it’s individual obsessed. We count individuals bigger than our team, other countries like England, Australia, New Zealand, the team is bigger and not the individual,” reflected Gambhir on the nature of Indian fans.
