Young Kolkata Knight Riders batter Angkrish Raghuvanshi faced severe criticism from fans on social media after he tried to mock India’s badminton sensation Saina Nehwal. Raghuvanshi made his IPL debut in 2024 and had a memorable outing with the bat. In 10 innings, he scored 163 runs at a strike rate of 155.24. Raghuvanshi’s statement came after Nehwal claimed that sports like badminton, tennis, basketball are physically tougher than cricketers She also criticised the Indian fans for always prioritising cricket over the other sports.
“Everyone wants to know what Saina is doing, what wrestlers and boxers are doing, what Neeraj Chopra is doing. Everyone knows these sportspersons, because we have consistently performed and we have been on the newspapers. I did that, I feel it’s like a dream that I did it in India, where there isn’t even a sporting culture,” Saina said on the Nikhil Simha podcast.
“Sometimes, I feel bad that cricket gets all the attention. The thing about cricket is… if you see badminton, basketball, tennis, and other sports are so tough physically. You don’t even have time to pick up the shuttle and serve, you are like… you are breathing so hard. A game like cricket gets so much attention where I personally believe skill is more important.”
These words by Nehwal did not go well with Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who took to X (former Twitter) and wrote, “Let’s see how she goes when Bumrah bowls 150k’s bumper at her head.”
The KKR star later on deleted the tweet and went on to post an apology to Nehwal. He then wrote, “I’m sorry everyone, I meant my remarks as a joke, looking back I think it was a really immature joke. I realize my mistake and I sincerely apologize.”
However, this was not the first time when a sportsperson voiced his/her opinion regarding the ignorance towards other sports.
Earlier, India badminton star Chirag Shetty also slammed the Maharashtra government for felicitating the T20 World Cup winners and not him after India’s triumph at Thomas Cup in 2022.
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