Former India spinner and now commentator, Harbhajan Singh ignited a massive social media controversy after he made a remark on the fan base of MS Dhoni and compared it to that of the rest of the Indian cricketers.
The comment left the netizens and cricket fans fuming and accusing the legendary spinner of taking a vile dig at Virat Kohli.
Harbhajan's comment came on Saturday, on the sidelines of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru's home game in the IPL 2025 against the Kolkata Knight Riders.
The 44-year-old spoke of Dhoni and his future in the IPL, with a media report claiming that he might just go for another season.
Speaking to a sports news channel, Harbhajan said the 43-year-old should continue playing as long as he can.
The discussion then briefly shifted to the fans' perspective, saying they want this. However, in his subsequent statement, Harbhajan said Dhoni is the only player with a "real fan base", while the rest rely on “paid fans and 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," he said.
Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra, who was also present in the panel, was left in splits at the remark, before saying: "Itna sach nehi bolna tha (You weren't supposed to be this honest)." Harbhajan showed no hesitation in responding: "Someone had to."
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Even though the former spinner did not mention Kohli’s name, it sparked a controversy on social media and didn’t go down well with the fans. The fans responded to this statement with photographs 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 visuals of huge crowds in stadiums in love for Virat Kohli.
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