Virender Sehwag is usually spot-on on Twitter. He’s entertaining, funny and politically correct on most counts. But with a great number of followers, comes great responsibility. And Sehwag has almost 9 million people following him on the micro-blogging site.
Which brings us to this tweet, which he sent out after India beat Pakistan in the final of the Blind T20 World Cup:
Needless to say, he got slammed by a few people… including the skipper of the team Ajay Reddy, who, in an interview to the Indian Express, said:
“We wear the same blue jersey, represent the same tri-colour and play with equal pride and passion then why term us as ‘other’? It is appreciable that he congratulated us but then we are no others. We too are the men in blue.”
Social media latched onto the tweet, and slammed Sehwag even more. But it’s this tweet that really caught the attention of the former opener:
So Sehwag hit back with this…
But… the final say should certainly belong to the skipper of the Indian team? If the team itself is not supportive of the theme, should Sehwag, who is pretty controversy free, give into a catch-phrase that does more ill than good to the image of the blind cricket team?
While he certainly has an excuse that it was the theme of the team during the tournament, there was really no need to defend using a tagline that is discriminatory, or to give it any credence at all. Especially when the team is looking for recognition at par, or at least close to what the ‘men in blue’ get.
“Without a proper job it is difficult to manage playing. Though sponsorship’s have come up in the recent past we are expecting that the BCCI and the government look at our plight. Our boys are giving in so much but in return are not getting any recognition. It is time that they sort things out,” Reddy told The Indian Express.
Sehwag may have convinced himself he was not in the wrong, but as a Twitter personality who is known to raise his voice for social causes, this one wasn’t right.