India’s former cricketer Virender Sehwag on February 12 sent out a tweet that congratulated India’s blind cricket team for winning the T20 World Cup.
While Sehwag till now, with his tweets, has been usually spot-on, the latest one seems to have gotten a controversy started.
Sehwag in his tweet had used the hashtag #TheOtherMenInBlue which has not gone down with many, including India’s blind cricket team captain Ajay Reddy.
Reddy in a recent interview had expressed his displeasure for being called that and said, that “they too are men in blue” and added that they are no “others”.
“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.”
What is more, even before Reddy blasted Sehwag for his tweet, the social media, including an former opener had slammed Sehwag for the use of the hashtag.
Reddy has a point, @virendersehwag! The team led by Kohli won’t be called ‘other’, right? https://t.co/RFyaPTLPMJ
— Gaurav Pandhi (@GauravPandhi) February 14, 2017
Unfortunately, later via Sehwag’s response, it was found that it was their official theme and not something of Sehwag’s making.
. @GauravPandhi Better do some research before commenting.But research &media/you don’t go hand in hand.It is their official campaign theme. pic.twitter.com/LplsoeZATf
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) February 14, 2017
While Sehwag might just have been doing his job by using it, the fact that even the Indian captain of the Blind team didn’t have a say in it, shows the team in itself is not supportive of the theme.
