A video of former world no. 1 badminton player Saina Nehwal went viral on social media on Friday. In it, she spoke about the increased popularity of Olympic sports, which are more physically demanding than cricket. However, the comment did not sit well with Kolkata Knight Riders’ rising sensation Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who posted a brutal tweet in response before deleting it and later apologising.
Speaking on the Nikhil Simha podcast, Nehwal went on a rant against the popularity of cricket in India, despite it being a far less challenging sport than the likes of badminton, basketball, tennis among others.
“I did that, I feel it’s like a dream sometimes. I did it in India because there’s no sporting culture in India. Sometimes, we feel so bad that cricket gets that attention. What I have one thing about cricket is, if you see badminton, basketball, tennis and of course the other sports are so tough physically. You don’t even have the time to pick up the shuttle and serve. You’re like (imitates panting), 20 seconds of run you just breathing so hard. And the game like cricket gets that kind of attention where I think personally skill is more important,” she said.
Raghuvanshi shared the video on his social media handle and mocked Nehwal, saying that she should face an express delivery from India fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah. The tweet read: “Let’s see how she goes when Bumrah bowls 150k’s bumpers at her head.”
Raghuvanshi deleted the tweet quickly, but screenshots of the post went viral on social media, which urged him to share an apology tweet, where he mentioned that his remarks were a joke.
“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,” wrote Raghuvanshi on his X account.
Earlier this year, in the 2024 season of the Indian Premier League, Raghuvanshi, who was India’s highest run-getter in the victorious 2022 U-19 World Cup campaign, made his debut for KKR. He scored 163 runs n 19 innings at a strike rate of 155.24, which included a maiden fifty.
