Former India spinner and now commentator, Harbhajan Singh, ignited a new social media controversy with his statement on Saturday. While praising the CSK skipper and legendary wicketkeeper-batter MS Dhoni and acknowledging his fan base, Harbhajan happened to take an indirect dig at Virat Kohli’s fan base.
The former World Cup-winning spinner was in conversation with the former India batter Aakash Chopra on Star Sports, on the sidelines of the RCB vs KKR game at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
“I feel Dhoni has a real fan base, the rest are on social media” - Harbhajan Singh
The 44-year-old went on to say that Dhoni has been the only cricketing star who has a ‘real fan base’ while the other cricketing stars are dependent on their ‘paid fans and social media PR’.
“He can play as long as he can. Had it been my team, I would have made a different decision. Fans will want him to continue playing. I feel he has a real fan base; the rest are all on social media, which are even paid fans. Leave them out, because if we start discussing that, the discussion will go in a different direction,” said Harbhajan Singh on star spots.
Replying to Harbhajan Singh’s remarks, Aakash Chopra couldn’t stop his laugh and said, “Itna sachi nahin bolna tha (You weren’t supposed to be this honest).” Furthermore, the turbantor didn’t hold it back before saying, “Someone had to.”
However, the former MI legend didn’t mention Virat Kohli’s name, but it sparked a controversy on social media and didn’t go down well with the fans. The fans also felt that Harbhajan Singh took an indirect dig at Kohli’s fan base, which made them respond to this statement with some photos and visuals.
‘Harbhajan Singh, this is not PR, this is Pyaar,’ wrote a fan sharing the photos of the stadiums filled with a huge number of fans for Virat Kohli across different formats of the game, be it international cricket, an IPL game or a Ranji Trophy game.
Besides this, a lot of fans also responded to this statement with some visuals of a huge crowd that filled the stadiums in love for Virat Kohli.
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