Why do Indian Cricket Fans body shame their own players so much? Is there a cultural acceptance of body shaming in India?

[vivek04]

If your only job is to play cricket then u need to have a healthy and athletic body. There is no body shaming in that. They have millions in bank to make an effort to improve their fitness, stamina, etc. yet some of them are ridiculously unfit.

[IndianRenegade]

They are not school kids for heaven’s sake. They are highly paid athletes and yet some of them don’t seem to have the fitness expected at this level.

 

No one is talking about their skin color or facial features or if he looks handsome or not they are totally irrelevant as to how they play the game, but their general fitness is directly relevant to how they perform. In the current Indian set up Virat seems to be best runner between the wkts not players much younger than him, the reason is quite obvious, he is more fitter than others. 

 

Asking to handle people who play at the top level earning top bucks with kid gloves is funny.

[Norman]

I'm sorry but what a stupid thread. 

 

 

Fitness and physique has direct effect on the performances of these players. And most importantly... it's completely in their hands to improve their fitness. They have no one else to blame if they look like beach balls or match sticks... with the kind of resources they have access to. 

[SRT100]

On 9/12/2022 at 7:49 PM, The Realist said:

Because some of them are the most highly paid sportsmen in their profession yet their fitness, physique and athletic ability is pitiful. They are supposed to be elite standard and have access to various physical and diet conditioning experts but look like teletubbies or stick insects, there is no excuse at their level.

 

 

 

One of the few Men's sides, that have players that play while pregnant. National disgrace, when you consider they have access to the best Health, nutrition and exercise programs, facilities and staff in the country.

 

If they cant be in peak condition, what hope does the average Indian in India have?

[SRT100]

On 9/12/2022 at 10:23 PM, Vickydev said:

Sportsmen are crictized for being unfit, that's common everywhere. No top level athlete is exempt. 

 

Disagree. You wont find overweight, unfit players in Rugby, AFL and Soccer. Regardless of how good they are.

[SRT100]

On 9/12/2022 at 11:03 PM, raki05 said:

People like chahal should be criticized as Shaw has been dropped for being fat and unfit than why can't chahal be criticized for being slimy malnourished moron. From which angle he looks like professional athelete for our major spoting event. Him and Bhuvi should not be near team due to them being lethargic sloth on the field.

 

Pant was body shamed when carrying extra kilos when he came to Australia in 2020 and missed the First Test because of it.

I dont have a problem shaming Chahal, he has an absolute weak physique. He needs to put on kilo's. Im not taking simply weight, I mean genuine muscle to support and strengthen his skeleton. It doesnt need to be much 3-5kgs, but enough to support him and make him a better athlete.

[Vilander]

awwww snowflake 

 

boobi koomar is malnourished so he will be called malnourished, hope someone throws him a protein bar he will bowl as phast as joojoo goswami then.

[Vickydev]

3 hours ago, SRT100 said:

 

Disagree. You wont find overweight, unfit players in Rugby, AFL and Soccer. Regardless of how good they are.

I don't watch Rugby, AFL but I can guarantee you footballers become overweight lots of times, check Hazard, Shaw, Lukaku, Wayne Rooney etc even in their prime years and them coming back after a break or something. And yes they were called fat. 

[jalebi_bhai]

Hmm...as I hypothesized, body shaming seems to be culturally accepted among us Indians. No wonder the likes of Kapil Sharma are considered to be the top comedians in India. Loads of people are simply doubling down in this thread rather than introspecting.  

[jalebi_bhai]

Ok. I will give people here the benefit of the doubt. But let's do a bit of deep dive on this issue.

 

Bhuvi seems to be ICF's favourite whipping boy nowadays and one of the main criticisms levied at him is his body frame is too frail and fragile. Is this a fair criticism? I don't think so.

Bhuvi's USP is that he can extract swing in pretty much any condition with the new ball making him lethal in PPs. Part of that swinging ability is a consequence of his smooth, high arm action which is highly repeatable. Now, if Bhuvi were to start bulking up, bringing about physiological changes to his body, it would naturally affect his action. We all know what happened with Irfan Pathan after he had bulked up in order to add more power to his batting; his action changed and his bowling lost its potency. Bhuvi might fear suffering the same fate.

 

Another example of physiological changes altering a player's career is that of Nasser Hussain. He was a leg spinning prodigy in his early teens but after gaining height during puberty, he was no longer able to bowl leg spin effectively. 

 

It is easy for us to criticize and shame but we also need to be mindful of the nuances of the game. Bhuvi is not a hit the deck bowler, he doesn't need to have the physique of one. All the biceps, shoulder and chest enthusiasts in the thread need to chill a bit. 

[raki05]

5 hours ago, jalebi_bhai said:

Ok. I will give people here the benefit of the doubt. But let's do a bit of deep dive on this issue.

 

Bhuvi seems to be ICF's favourite whipping boy nowadays and one of the main criticisms levied at him is his body frame is too frail and fragile. Is this a fair criticism? I don't think so.

Bhuvi's USP is that he can extract swing in pretty much any condition with the new ball making him lethal in PPs. Part of that swinging ability is a consequence of his smooth, high arm action which is highly repeatable. Now, if Bhuvi were to start bulking up, bringing about physiological changes to his body, it would naturally affect his action. We all know what happened with Irfan Pathan after he had bulked up in order to add more power to his batting; his action changed and his bowling lost its potency. Bhuvi might fear suffering the same fate.

 

Another example of physiological changes altering a player's career is that of Nasser Hussain. He was a leg spinning prodigy in his early teens but after gaining height during puberty, he was no longer able to bowl leg spin effectively. 

 

It is easy for us to criticize and shame but we also need to be mindful of the nuances of the game. Bhuvi is not a hit the deck bowler, he doesn't need to have the physique of one. All the biceps, shoulder and chest enthusiasts in the thread need to chill a bit. 

Hope Bhuvi bring physiology changes and bulk up, that way he would be able to hit some sixes against good team and his throw would reach to the keeper in one bounce . Bhuvi and chahal are anyway useless with their bowling against good team, so after bulking up they might score some runs and justify their position as fake alrounder like other we have. Also, they will not be called malnourished trundler and only trundlers which will be inline with your expectations of criticism.

Edited September 16, 2022 by raki05

[Jay]

Because fat *s skinny *s

Malnourished *s don't deserve to be called athletes. 

[IndianRenegade]

9 hours ago, jalebi_bhai said:

Hmm...as I hypothesized, body shaming seems to be culturally accepted among us Indians. No wonder the likes of Kapil Sharma are considered to be the top comedians in India. Loads of people are simply doubling down in this thread rather than introspecting.  

So criticism of someone's physique in a sport where you yourself argue it has a direct impact on, is not acceptable? 

Edited September 16, 2022 by IndianRenegade

[Vilander]

10 hours ago, jalebi_bhai said:

Hmm...as I hypothesized, body shaming seems to be culturally accepted among us Indians. No wonder the likes of Kapil Sharma are considered to be the top comedians in India. Loads of people are simply doubling down in this thread rather than introspecting.  

Stating a fact that an international sport person has physical fitness attribute deficiency is not body shamming lol. It's stating facts. No one bothers once they retire. No one bothers how they look, its how they perform in the sport or lack of it thereof.

[Vilander]

9 hours ago, jalebi_bhai said:

if Bhuvi were to start bulking up

You also don't know what you are talking about. Getting fit is not bulking up. 

[Vilander]

Boobie lacks core strength needed to bowl in international level games he trundles at 120k and gets slapped around. He won't if he bowls 135 consistently with the control he has. He lacks physical fitness to do so, has ability to control at that speed ,we saw he did 140s for a period and got injured.

[SRT100]

14 hours ago, Vickydev said:

I don't watch Rugby, AFL but I can guarantee you footballers become overweight lots of times, check Hazard, Shaw, Lukaku, Wayne Rooney etc even in their prime years and them coming back after a break or something. And yes they were called fat. 

 

You are getting totally confused between an athlete carrying "some extra kilos" rather than being fat per se, like Hitman.

These soccer players still would be slim in comparison to most Indian cricket players that are "overweight".

[Vickydev]

1 hour ago, SRT100 said:

 

You are getting totally confused between an athlete carrying "some extra kilos" rather than being fat per se, like Hitman.

These soccer players still would be slim in comparison to most Indian cricket players that are "overweight".

I never said they are fat. They are overweight and unfit for what the sports demands of them. And they still will be called 'Fat' by fans because of whom they are competing against

 

https://www.espn.in/football/club/manchester-united/360/blog/post/3575341/luke-shaw-interview-on-being-called-fatunited-contract-talks-and-jose-mourinho

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11038941/Romelu-Lukaku-returned-Inter-Milan-OVERWEIGHT-previously-best-shape-life.html

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/eden-hazard-fat-overweight-real-madrid-chelsea-lille-five-kilograms-la-liga-ucl-a9213256.html

 

 

They don't need to be as much as our cricketers but they are still overweight for their discipline and will be called out for it as my original post said. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jay]

1 hour ago, SRT100 said:

 

You are getting totally confused between an athlete carrying "some extra kilos" rather than being fat per se, like Hitman.

These soccer players still would be slim in comparison to most Indian cricket players that are "overweight".

Lol that guy has no idea about what he his talking about.  Lukaku Rooney may look chubby but they are supremely fit. They can run for 10 km a game. 

They are super fit athletes. Peak level athletes. I would say soccer players (elite ones) are the best athletes in the world. 

 

[SRT100]

4 minutes ago, Jay said:

Lol that guy has no idea about what he his talking about.  Lukaku Rooney may look chubby but they are supremely fit. They can run for 10 km a game. 

They are super fit athletes. Peak level athletes. I would say soccer players (elite ones) are the best athletes in the world. 

 

 

Correct.

 

Lukaku and Rooney may carry sometimes extra weight and appear "bigger" than what they normally are, but there is brute strength and speed that comes with that. They are not overweight and still within a healthy weight range.

 

Best athletes in the world as far as team sports goes is debatable. AFL players some run like 16kms per game. 99% of them are not carrying extra fat either.