Star shuttler Saina Nehwal recently drew comparisons between the disproportionate attention that cricket commands in India when compared to other sports. Saina lamented the absence of sports culture in the country and admitted other athletes sometimes ‘feel bad’ about the huge difference.
Speaking on a podcast, the Olympic bronze medallist and a former world no. 1 singles player Saina seemingly claimed that sports like badminton, tennis among others are ‘physically’ tougher than cricket where personal skills take precedence.
“…there’s no sporting culture in India. Sometimes, we feel so bad that cricket gets that attention. What I have one thing about cricket is, if you see badminton, basketball, tennis and of course the other sports are so tough physically. You don’t even have the time to pick up the shuttle and serve. You’re like (imitates panting), 20 seconds of run you just breathing so hard. And the game like cricket gets that kind of attention where I think personally skill is more important,” Saina said on Nikhil Simha podcast.
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Kolkata Knight Riders batter Angkrish Raghuvanshi took exception to the comment and took a shot at Saina wondering how she will react when facing a 150kph bouncer from Jasprit Bumrah.
“Let’s see how she goes when Bumrah bowls 150k’s bumpers at her head,” Raghuvanshi wrote while sharing the post on X (formerly Twitter).
However, he realised his mistake and deleted the post before apologising for the ‘immature joke’.
I’m sorry everyone, I meant my remarks as a joke, looking back I think it was a really immature joke. I realize my mistake and I sincerely apologize.— Angkrish Raghuvanshi (@angkrish10) July 12, 2024
“I’m sorry everyone, I meant my remarks as a joke, looking back I think it was a really immature joke. I realize my mistake and I sincerely apologize,” Raghuvanshi posted.
Raghuvanshi was the highest run-getter for India when they won the 2022 U-19 World Cup in the Caribbean. The 19-year-old made his debut for Kolkata Knight Riders during IPL 2024 and scored 163 runs in seven innings at a strike-rate of 155.24.
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