“I am ashamed” - Indian World Cup winner slams players for provocative gestures in Asia Cup 2025

Former Indian cricketer and World Cup winner Syed Kirmani has lashed out at the current generation of cricketers for mixing up politics in the game of cricket and their provocative gestures on the field in the recently concluded Asia Cup 2025 campaign. 

Speaking exclusively to ANI, Kirmani stated that he also received multiple messages from his friends about the Indian cricketers mixing up politics on the field. Moreover, he added that he was ashamed to listen to such comments from his friends. 

“The way cricket is being played all around - I won’t like to take the names of the countries — by and large, there has been no gentleman-ness in the game. There have been very rude, arrogant gestures on the field. I’m not referring to only the Asia Cup,” Syed Kirmani said in an interview with ANI.

“I was receiving messages like ‘Indian team ko kya ho gaya hai? Yeh kya politics chal rahe hain on the field? (What has happened to the Indian team? what is this politics that are being played out on the field?)’ I’m ashamed to listen to the comments from my friends. My friends say, ‘Your time was different. You played like gentlemen. But what has happened to the current era of cricketers globally?'”

“It is very depressing to me the way things are going on in the sporting field, particularly in cricket. It is not the right thing that has happened. Politics should not enter sports in general. Leave politics behind. Whatever has transpired away from the sporting field, leave it there itself. Don’t relate it to your winning amount or whatever you are earning from this great game of cricket. Don’t dedicate it politics (political causes). In our time, cricketers had such wonderful camaraderie. Pakistani players coming to India, us going to Pakistan. What hospitality, what love, what affection. I have to put my head down as a cricketer,” Kirmani concluded.

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