If you haven’t seen this video, you’ve either been under a rock, asleep or you live on Facebook. It’s a video of Rohit Sharma and Praveen Kumar having a go at a fan in the nets. With the kind help of @thecricketcouch, the translation for what is going on is added below for all us goris.
Keep in mind that we only see a short clip of the video – we only see what Rohit is saying to the fan – we have no idea what provoked him to such an extent to flip out. Cricket fans are notorious for having a go at cricketers, if they refuse to greet them, if they refuse autographs, if they refuse pictures. I don’t think what Sharma and Kumar said was right, but I don’t think it’s particularly wrong either. These guys cop flak from all over. All the time. They put up with it. Good on them for responding a bit. Of course, the fans won’t see it like that…
English Translation:
Rohit Sharma: Go, tell those people. You are asking me, who am I? Who are you Behenchod, who are you? You come here and cussing me out.
Fan: Don’t curse at me. I didn’t curse at you…
RS: I didn’t curse at you either. What were you saying from there? That speak to you in Punjabi? What are you trying to be? Huh? Keep your mouth shut. You’ve had booze and come here. (At this time, PK shows up in the video).
Praveen Kumar: Apologize to him.
RS: What apologize? I’ll come there and hit you with the bat.
PK: (As he brandishes the stump) We’ll f**k you up the arse, you c***. (Literally what he said means, “We will break your arse, you c***”).
Manoj Tiwary: You won’t know what happened.
[PK looks for way to get out of nets to get to the fan.]
Fan: Let it go, Praveen Brother. Let it go. He is drunk.
RS: No letting go. You guys don’t understand. You guys are Indians, yaar! Why do you come and shout at us??
Fan: We understand. You are our guests.
RS; You let us neither practice (train) in peace nor let us play out there….
[Can’t hear what PK is saying to the short guy there]
[PK points the stump to fan]
PK: Come here, I’ll show you, you motherf***r [madarchod]. Come here, come here, I’ll show you.
Unknown: Let’s go guys.
About the author:
Ant likes bad cricket romances, some say she is a masochist. A Saffa, who has a soft spot for the West Indies and also supports Arsenal. "Some" might be right.
mspr1nt has written 142 posts on Wicket Maiden. Want more? Follow mspr1nt on Twitter.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
“Good on them for responding a bit.”
Wait, what?
Remind me, is being a cricket player some kind of global right that Sharma or Kumar inherited and are being funded by the UN to perform this right so the planet won’t hit the sun or something, or is it a profession that solely exist due to people want to pay you for playing cricket in front of them in stadiums or on TV?
Because if its the latter, then the Sharmas, the Kohlis, and the Kumars should be reminded that they, the cricket players, exist and are being paid (very handsomely these days) because of fans. They are not royalty that should tolerate fans whenever they like. If someone bothers them to an extent they can’t train, fine, withdraw and call security, not behave like some high caste of beings that have to tolerate the adoration of those who give them money to play cricket. Or they can go and play whatever goes for village cricket in India and elsewhere where no fan pays hundred of dollars to be able to sit in a stadium and call your mother names.
I think you misinterpreted. But if you put up with shit from fans all day, every day – being expected to act in a certain way simply because you are in the public eye, you’d also get sick of it, no?
I’m sure of it. I’m also sure of the fact that neither of those players is not playing because he was forced to, and that there are millions of professional, semi-professional and amateur cricketers who would sacrifice several organs to be in their place. Those guys are world-wide renown, making millions of sponsorship, ads and IPL contracts, for playing cricket. There is one caveat, and that’s fans. Same with movie stars and pop singers. If they want to be left alone, I’m sure they can work in a nice office where no fan is there to say what they did to their mother.
Agree to disagree, then.
Good on them. If the ‘fan’ was really a fan he would not be hurling insults at the players regardless of how drunk. So the equation of how they should be treating their fans becomes void. With that said, I’d completely support them knocking out said ‘fan’s teeth with the bat. The idea that fame makes one subject to being the public’s bitch is laughable. This abusive fan is not the reason why they are where they are, it’s the millions of appreciative ones that are the reason.
People get drunk and say far worse things to their friends, family and spouses; it’s still generally frowned upon to hit them (though I guess the public do set different standards for famous people). A fan lashing out at someone he should be supporting isn’t a sign that they’re not really a fan.
For some, an under-performing sports team is like being abandoned by God. And similarly, any who ask why tend to find the response a bit lacking.
If you don’t care, it’s easy to get over it. On the contrary, only someone who cares a lot seeks an angry dialogue with his team. Even a lot of perfectly happy fans have better things to do than go to the nets.
The better players are generally above this, both in attracting attention and responding to it, but the younger players, the fringe players, always have more reason to be insecure. Those same fans probably have kinder words for Virat Kohli, but they do have reason to be upset with players like Rohit Sharma. And sure, the Indian cricket team can go around threatening violence against everyone who thinks they’re shit, but it won’t give them anything they actually want.
“Threatening violence” is a bit strong. I tell people I’m going to pull their teeth out with plyers all the time when they piss me off. Some things are often said in anger due to our reactionary brain wanting to act in self defence when feeling threatened.
Which is perhaps why they react the way they did – feeling threatened – already about their place in the team and now perhaps also feel that the love from fans is at risk because of their under performance.
Like I said in the post – I don’t think the reaction was wrong, that doesn’t make the aggressive and incredibly sweary resposne right either. I do think fans need to be ‘put in their place’ a bit more often, though. They are far too quick to spew abuse at players – from behind their keyboards, from the stands [poor Sree on his tour to SA a few years back, got a right bollocking from the SA crowd, I know, I was there, I watched and I chipped in with a few chirps myself], from the nets. Banter is fine, but some take it way too far. Too often fans forget that these guys are, after all, still human. A little bit of decency and respect goes a very long way. And that counts for both sides.
You being someone from outside the country probably dont understand that this sort of behaviour from our cricketers towards the fan is not once in a blue moon. Rather thaThat is the norm. They even will abuse the fans at the slightest of provocations and sometimes withoutt even any provocation at all. Just the Chant “CSK rocks” is enough to get Kohli’s blood boiling. here are two videos u might need to watch.
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sn6ID8tnUs
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VvOCQRurc4
I think I do understand, because it doesn’t just happen in cricket. It happens with other sports, in other countries. They’re still human, after all, like I said previously – definitely not right, but perhaps not completely wrong either.
Just saw this video. Praveen Kumar (the original Wrestler) was the best! But needling fans need to be given back sometimes.
You got that Hindi spot on!