Cricket is an obsession for the people of our subcontinent. In India we have almost a billion people treating it as their religion, in Pakistan, we have people choosing ex-cricketer as their Prime minister to run the country, in Srilanka, it brings hope in despair amidst the current crises and whatnot… There is a long list of what cricket means to us and how interested we are in always learning something about it.

When the audience listens to experts, be it, analysts or ex-cricketers, we really tend to give meaning to their words and respect them. In this joy, there is also a party foil. One such incident came across when Shoaib Akhtar, the ex-Pakistani cricketer pointed out that “Rishabh Pant “Can Emerge As Model, Earn In Crores”.

He talked about Rishabh’s brilliance in cricket as he said “Rishabh Pant is a fearless cricketer. He has the cut shot, pull-shot, reverse sweep, slog sweep, and paddle sweep. He won the (Test) match in Australia, he won the match here (in England) and took India to a series victory single-handedly,”

However, Akhtar also suggests that Pant should pay attention to his fitness and lose weight. He thinks the 24-year-old can become a model and make millions of dollars.

“He is a little overweight. I hope he takes care of that. Because the Indian market is big. He’s good-looking. He can emerge as a model and earn in crores. Because whenever a person becomes a superstar in India, a lot of investment is made on them.”

A lot of what he said is true that cricketers in India are not just celebrities, they turn in role models or even gods for their fans. Their brand value increases with their fame. But what went wrong was Shoaib’s suggestion that Rishabh needs to lose weight to look like a model.

If we are to clear things out, in a recent interview, Team India’s performance coach said that Rishabh Pant is a pahadi boy, who is built strong and is extremely flexible which makes him a very viable athlete. We have seen that Pant has worked on his fitness, and passed all the fitness tests to be part of the team. He has emerged as one of the most talented youngsters of the present generation.

When Shoaib had already announced Pant as champion earlier, his need to bring his weight forward only to suggest that he needs to work on fitness for aesthetic purposes speaks volumes about his priority as a ‘cricket expert’. It is high time we consider his position and understand are we really fine with such comments, even as a joke?