'Complete cinema culture': R Ashwin comes to MI captain Hardik Pandya's defence amid fan backlash

Ravichandran Ashwin has lashed out at the "complete cinema culture" created by cricket fans, especially supporters of Mumbai Indians and their former captain Rohit Sharma amid the barrage of abuse directed towards current skipper Hardik Pandya.

Pandya has been at the receiving end of fan backlash on social media ever since he was named MI captain following his high-profile trade from the Gujarat Titans, bringing Rohit's reign as captain to an abrupt end after a decade.

The vitriol against the bowling all-rounder further intensified at the start of the 17th season, witn Pandya getting booed at Ahmedabad and Hyderabad during MI's away fixtures against GT and Sunrisers Hyderabad respectively, with the five-time IPL champions losing both matches to start the season on a forgettable note.

Read | Hardik Pandya receives hostile welcome in Ahmedabad as MI lose yet another IPL season-opener

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Responding to a question from a fan on whether the franchise needed to step forth and clear the air on the matter, Ashwin said that the onus instead should lie with the followers of the game who needed to do better instead of resorting to "ugly" fan wars.

"I think it is the responsibility and onus of the fans. In the comments section you see talks about Virat Kohli , MS Dhoni. They are Indian cricket team legends. It is very sad. This is cricket. It is a complete cinema culture. I know there is also positioning, branding, marketing. But fan wars, ugly.

"If you don't like a player and boo a player, why should a team come out to issue a clarification? We act like this has not happened before. Sachin played under Ganguly's captaincy, these two have both played under Rahul Dravid. These three have played under Kumble and all of them have played under Dhoni. When they were under MS, these players were cricket giants. We need to get our act together. This is real time sport," Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

Read | Steve Smith urges Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya to 'block out' jeers from crowd

Pandya had previously been captaining the Indian team in T20Is after Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli's decision to step away from the format after the 2022 T20 World Cup. Both Rohit and Kohli, however, returned to T20Is in January in the home series against Afghanistan, and the former was later named India skipper for the T20 World Cup later this year by the BCCI.