Sharmila Tagore Says Her Father Once Blamed Her For Tiger Pataudi Dropping A Catch, And It’s The Most Awkward Thing!

Men play the game, women get the blame. Ye toh cricket ka dastoor hai, ever since social media gained momentum. And now, like clockwork, this same trend is repeated every match. If Virat Kohli loses, it would be Anushka Sharma’s fault. If Rohit Sharma scored a ton, it was all for the benefit of an anxious Ritika Sajdeh watching him from the box. And why did RCB win their first match in this IPL? Duh, because little Vamika must’ve brought Papa Kohli luck na? Sigh. I thought our younger generations were the inventors of this WAGs-shaming in cricket. But this revelation by Sharmila Tagore reminded me, this has been going on forever!

During a recent live session for Ladies Study Group, which is part of the Indian Chambers of Commerce,  Sharmila Tagore revealed how she too got blamed for her husband, star cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi aka Tiger Pataudi’s misstep on the field! And that too, not by any random fan or news publication but her very own father!

“I think Tiger dropped a catch or something and my father screamed from somewhere else, ‘You shouldn’t have kept him up all night!’ I mean, can you imagine?”

Also Read: Ex-CBFC Chairperson Sharmila Tagore Sees No Rationale In Abolishing Film Certification Appellate Tribunal, And Neither Do We

Okay I get it, this was probably one of those very cheeky comments that elders feel okay to pass in the house. And it probably doesn’t carry as much vitriol as the jibes and memes of social media trolls. However, the implications of that statement are… erm… quite awkward in so many ways! Even now, when we are comparatively more free with our parents, to have your father pass such remarks would have been nothing short of mortifying for the actress!

Also Read: RCB Loses, Netizens Troll Anushka Sharma For Virat Kohli’s Bad Form. Why Must Women Always Be Blamed For A Man’s Failures?

You might think this is a stretch, but it is also important to note that jest is how these insidious ideas gain footing in our brains. It’s easy to predict the trajectory of how social media trolling of the likes of Anushka Sharma must’ve happened. Someone must’ve meant it as a one-off joke/meme/tweet that went viral, and suddenly it became an unbreakable pattern that was repeated with every match that Virat Kohli played and lost. Remember when Sunil Gavaskar passed that remark about Virat Kohli having only practiced on Anushka Sharma’s bowling during the lockdown, and how Anushka had to call him out for it on her Instagram stories? Even though it was no fault of her’s how her husband performs on the field, not only did she have to school a cricketing legend on it, but she also had to be graceful and polite while doing it, lest there be more backlash because she insulted a game stalwart.

I think the lesson is right there for all of us to learn from, and it is surprising that we’re still not getting it. The putting down of women, the invalidating or exaggerating of the roles they play, all of this is subconscious conditioning that begins in the family, often through jokes and jest. We brush it off as something not serious or ‘cheeky’ but the truth is, this cheeky festers and turns into serious ingrained sexism that causes the blame for Cheeku’s bad form on the cricket field to be blamed on Nushki.

And that’s just sad.

https://thehauterfly.com/lifestyle/taapsee-pannu-calls-out-publication-calling-mithali-raj-a-former-player-and-stresses-on-the-importance-of-such-biopics/