‘Handful of wrongdoers can’t sully cricket’s image’

‘A handful of people who do something wrong doesn’t carry the image of the entire sport. There are still millions of people who wants to go out there and play the game and represent the country,’ said Gambhir, who is also the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders.

‘If some handful of people do something wrong that doesn’t mean cricket is dirty. There are lot of people who wants to do well,’ he said. For Gambhir, IPL is a serious business but feels steps like banning cheerleaders from the tournament is not the solution to eradicate corruption from the event. ‘For me everything depends on individual. You can’t stop an individual from doing something wrong. It has to come from within,’ he said.

‘IPL is a serious competition and not what you do off the field. When I joined KKR, my only thinking was to see the team do well on the field. But if a handful of people thing IPL is more to do with off-field activities, it’s the wrong way of approaching IPL. There are a handful of people who think that and you can’t control them. The only way out is not to make them part of IPL,’ the left-hander added.

Asked how difficult it will be to return to the Indian team considering the good showing of the opening duo of Shikhar Dhawan. ‘For any sportsperson, it’s not about how difficult to make a comeback. It’s about going out there and keep scoring runs because as a batsmen that’s what you play cricket.’