Off field nature of player and its impact

[Khalpat]

Its a hypothetical question but how much is the off field nature of a player helps in the popularity of player. To be more specific how much Sachin popularity is due to his down to earth humble nature would it have been mattered to cricket fans if he would have been same batsman with same records but having an aggressive nature of Ponting. This is also for other Batsman like just suppose Ganguly was gentleman and Dravid would be really aggressive mad mouthing doing M**ki and B***en ki everynow and then what difference it would have made to their fans. Even for Pakistani fans just suppose Afridi was a thorough gentleman like Anwar would it have made difference to his popularity.

[tracerbullet]

we love the players for how well they perform on the field.. but when they are humble inspite of all their successes, our respect for them goes up even more. that's why everyone worships Sachin and not Ponting even though he is an amazing player... Afridi fans on the other hand seem to like the fact that he is not a thorough gentleman....

[fineleg]

How someone conducts themselves on and off the field can influence the respect they earn in the minds of people. Cricketing achievements is one thing, their (good) conduct adds respect to them.

[Alchemist]

I thinkit totally affects the way we look at players. Extreme example is an extremely taleanted player charged for murder. Would you look at him the same way ? The answer is NO. We like to see people causing contreversy and we follow them more. But they are flash in the pan. We RESPECT those people who are gentlemen on and off the field.

[fineleg]

The Sreesanths and Bhajjis will do well to improve on this, along with improving their bowling