Gautam Gambhir's criticism was aimed at broadcasters, not BCCI Secretary Jay Shah
A video of former Indian cricketer and current head coach of the Indian men’s cricket team, Gautam Gambhir, is going viral. In the video, he is heard saying, ‘Those who have never played a single game of cricket in their life are the ones deciding today who should become a star and who shouldn’t.’ It is being claimed that Gambhir made this statement targeting Jay Shah, the chairman of the board of directors of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and former BCCI secretary.
Sharing the video, Kamal Haasan parody wrote, “Gambhir sir said a very serious thing.” (Archived link)
Another handle Dev Ruwala stated, “Who is Gautam getting so serious about here?” (Archived link)
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We took a keyframe from Gautam Gambhir’s viral clip and did a reverse image search. It turns out that the video is from a podcast hosted by ANI’s Chief Editor, Smita Prakash, on December 9, 2023.
We watched the full podcast video, which revealed that Gautam Gambhir was actually talking about broadcasters, criticizing how they showed bias in trying to make one or two players into stars.
At 17:40 minutes into the video, reflecting on how Gambhir was overshadowed by MS Dhoni in the narrative surrounding India’s 2011 World Cup victory, he said, “It’s been 12 years today, India hasn’t won a single World Cup. Because sadly we only look at the statistics. If the media, broadcasters, and social media, especially broadcasters start acting as a PR (public relations) machinery of a player, the result will never come. There are 15 people in an organization (team), and they all work equally hard but if the broadcaster becomes the PR machinery of just one or two players, how will the other 13 players feel.”
At the 19:16 minutes time frame, Gambhir further adds, “Someone who has never even held a cricket bat, who has never stood in front of a crowd of one lakh people and handled that pressure, who has never faced criticism, that person sits in an AC room and, because he has the machinery, gets to decide who should be made into a brand and who shouldn’t. He thinks, ‘Out of these two boys, I like this one more, so I’ll make him a brand.’ He puts the entire machinery behind him, but not the other one. So what about the other 14 players? And then you say that you are a stakeholder of Indian cricket. You are not a stakeholder by any means, you are just a businessman who wants to make money out of Indian cricket team. “
The interviewer then asks Gambhir whether he is referring to the BCCI or the broadcasters, to which Gambhir clarifies that he is talking about the broadcasters. He says the BCCI has been very fair.
Therefore, in the viral video, Gautam Gambhir is not talking about former BCCI Secretary and current ICC chairman Jay Shah, but about the broadcasters.
| Claim | Gautam Gambhir, while targeting Jay Shah, stated that those who have never played a single game of cricket are the ones currently deciding who should be made a star and who shouldn’t. |
| Claimed by | Kamal Haasan parody and Dev Ruwala |
| Fact Check | Gautam made this statement about the broadcasters in a podcast with ANI. |
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