Soon after the former Indian opener, Gautam Gambhir was appointed as the mentor of the new Lucknow-based Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise as the team’s mentor, Sony Sports Network, posted an extremely offensive post on Twitter against the former cricket icon, who is also serving as the Member of Parliament of Bharatiya Janta Party. However, they later went on to delete the tweet.
However, a lot of popular Twitter handle started posting about the screenshot of the Tweet by Sony Sports. In the now-deleted post, Sony Sports wrote: “Clearly Supreme Leader is not paying this dude enough of money”. SOny SPorts had quoted tweeted a user @CricCrazyJohns in which the latter had informed that Gautam Gambhir had been appointed as the mentor of the Lucknow IPL franchise.
Why did @SonySportsIndia delete it? pic.twitter.com/FmXkHNEgs3
— iMac_too (@iMac_too) December 18, 2021
Who said Dhoni isn't active on Twitter? pic.twitter.com/fGQXuAIO4H
— Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) December 18, 2021
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 Mazaaa aa gaya pic.twitter.com/lLaicZFx2X
— Knight Gryffin (@youphemise) December 18, 2021
Since Gautam Gambhir is a standing MP for BJP, Sony Sports implied that the ‘Supreme Leader,’ in an obvious reference to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is not paying Gambhir enough, thus, compelling him to take up the post as the new head coach of the Lucknow IPL team.
The sports network discreetly deleted the Tweet within minutes after it was posted, without giving any explanation or apology for its insensitive and rather unnecessary remark.
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Meanwhile, Gautam Gambhir took to Twitter to thank Sanjiv Goenka and the RPSG Group for considering him for the position. He tweeted, “Thanks a lot to Dr Goenka and the RPSG Group for presenting me this wonderful opportunity in their setup. “The fire to win a contest still burns bright inside me, the desire to leave a winner’s legacy still kicks me 24×7. I will not be contesting for a dressing room but for the spirit and soul of Uttar Pradesh.”
It’s a privilege to be in the contest again. Thanks Dr.Goenka for incl me in #LucknowIPLTeam as its mentor.The fire to win still burns bright inside me, the desire to leave a winner’s legacy still kicks me. I won’t be contesting for a dressing room but for the spirit & soul of UP
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) December 18, 2021
The owner of the yet-to-be-named franchise, Sanjiv Goenka welcomed Gambhir into the RPSG family. He said, “Gautam has an impeccable career record. I respect his cricketing mind and look forward to working with him.”
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Apart from Gautam Gambhir, the Lucknow franchise also made the announcement of Andy Flower becoming the new head coach as the team is finalizing its backroom staff ahead of the all-important IPL auction.
