‘These Shameless People…’: Sunil Gavaskar Warns World Cup Winning Women’s Team Against False Promises (Source: AP)
Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar warned the Women’s World Cup-winning team not to get their expectations too high, saying they should not get disappointed if they don’t get a few promised rewards. After heartbreaks in 2005 and 2017, the Women in Blue ended the ICC trophy drought and won the maiden World Cup. The win sparked a wave of celebration across the country. The BCCI announced a 51 crore reward for the World Cup-winning team to go along with the 40 crore prize from the ICC as tournament winners. Several state governments also announced cash rewards for the World Cup queens.
Gavaskar pointed out that many of the brands and people make false announcements to get free publicity.
“Just a word of caution to the girls. Please don’t get disappointed if some of the promised awards don’t come to you. In India, advertisers, and brands and individuals are quick to jump on the bandwagon and try and get free publicity for themselves on the shoulders of the winners. Have a look at the full-page advertising and hoardings congratulating the team. Unless they are team and individual players’ sponsors, the rest are only trying to promote their brands or themselves and giving nothing to the ones who have brought glory to Indian cricket,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day.
Gavaskar Recalls 1983 World Cup ExperienceGavaskar’s warning stems from his personal experience. He revealed that the 1983 World Cup-winning team was also promised several rewards, which still remain undelivered. “The 1983 team also were made many promises with loads of coverage in the media then. Almost all never materialised. The media can’t be blamed as they were happy to carry the lofty announcements, not realising that they also were being used by these shameless people. So girls, don’t fret if these shameless ones are using your win to promote themselves,” added Gavaskar.