Former cricket player Ramiz Raja addressed the long-standing issue in the cricket world of players
Former cricket player Ramiz Raja addressed the long-standing issue in the cricket world of players blaming their spouses and families for their declines in performance in a recent interview with Soni Digital.
Raja disclosed that athletes frequently bring their families along to competitions, and the strain of juggling both family and work has a significant negative impact on athletes’ results. Nonetheless, asserting that the players’ choices to bring their family along are more to blame for this than their families.
But the issue still exists. Let’s examine a few situations in which the players’ on-field achievements were attributed to their spouses or families.
Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma
Bollywood star Anushka Sharma has been the target of criticism on several occasions when her husband, Virat Kohli, has performed poorly in the field. Anushka, for example, was blamed for the 2014 Lord’s defeat following Kohli’s dismissal for zero.
The last one was a swarm of Twitter haters who were disparaging her after India lost the World Test Championship final. “It seems like neither Virat nor Team India or any player achieves his goals,” one such tweet addressed to Anushka said. I respectfully ask that you think about not going to games.
The celebrity has frequently been the target of racist remarks to the point where her spouse felt compelled to stand up for her. Virat defended her on Instagram in 2016, after they had broken up for a while, writing, “Shame on blaming and making fun of her when she has no control over what I do with my sport.”
Shoaib Malik and Sania Mirza
Similar to Anushka, the tennis icon has long been held accountable for her ex-husband’s on-field exploits. The Pakistani team’s World Cup 2019 defeat to India is one such incident. Social media was flooded with images of Shoaib Malik lounging at a lounge till late before the game, while the supporters were criticizing the players.
Even though it was eventually established that these photos weren’t recent, Sania became more well-known as a result. Veena Malik asserted that Sania ought to have prevented “Shoaib from breaking the curfew.” With a tweet that said, “I would like to request media and people to maintain respect levels in regards to our families,” Shoaib defended her.
In a video for “Double Trouble,” Sania discussed the anger ladies feel against their husbands for failing them, stating, “I think whenever our husbands perform, it’s because of them and when they don’t it’s because of us.” I’m not sure how that operates.
Nawab Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and Sharmila Tagore
You can be mistaken if you believe this is a relatively new occurrence. In the 1990s, veteran Indian actress Sharmila Tagore was also frequently held accountable for her husband’s performance. She said in an interview that after Pataudi had made a catch, she was called out by the public for “keeping him up all night.”
She stated in a different interview that even if she wanted to, she would not go on tours with her spouse. “On one or two occasions, it was thought that I was somehow responsible for his poor performance,” the woman asserted.
Jasprit Bumrah and Sanjana Ganesan
In addition to Anushka, the spouses of other athletes were also made to answer for their husbands’ World Test Championship results. Among them was TV anchor Sanjana Ganesan. Hatred flooded the comments section after Burmah shared a photo of himself and his wife with the phrase, “smiling with you.”
“You were a wicketless bowler in the WTC final because of Sanjana,” was one among the remarks made to Sanjana. Others said that Burmah should put more emphasis on his bowling career rather than his romantic life and attributed his lack of wickets to “marriage.”
Hasan Ali and Samiya Arzoo
Hasan Ali faced criticism in 2021 when Australia was batting in the World Cup semi-final because he dropped a vital catch by Mathew Wade and gave up runs. It didn’t take long for the family to come under attack, particularly his wife and his faith. Numerous critics on social media said that he dropped the catch because of his Indian wife, Samiya Arzoo. There were claims in some tweets that he caused Pakistan to lose the match by giving away runs on purpose in order to console his wife.
All of these incidents together only serve to highlight the growing trend among cricket fans to target the wives of male players. Even though the game has changed from a five-day match to a 20-over extravaganza, with billions of dollars going to different teams, fans remain hooked on partners who, in truth, provide our cricket players a shoulder to cry on when they falter. We are the ones making the joke.
I am a dedicated student currently in my seventh semester, pursuing a degree in International Relations. Alongside my academic pursuits, I am actively engaged in the professional field as a content writer at the Rangeinn website.
