It can be easy to forget that there is a whole corner of the world that really, really likes cricket. Maria Sharapova won’t forget that fact any time soon.
Sachin Tendulkar was in attendance at Wimbledon on Saturday and if you don’t know who that is, don’t worry, Maria Sharapova didn’t know either:
Q. Sachin Tendulkar was the other person who came in at the same time as David [Beckham]. Do you know who Sachin is?
Sharapova: I don’t.
Turns out, Tendulkar is one of cricket’s all-time great players. And while cricket’s popularity is fairly limited in the fact that it’s not popular in many countries, it happens to be a very popular sport in the one of the most populous ones, India, where Tendulkar is originally from.
As one could perhaps sadly expect, cricket fans did not take too kindly to the notion of a professional tennis player from Russia NOT knowing the name of India’s cricket legend. For instance, take this recent photo from Sharapova’s Facebook page:
A pretty innocuous music video featuring Sharapova, right? The comment section?
There’s more (a LOT more) but you get the idea.
The recently started #WhoIsMariaSharapova social campaign really emphasizes the saltiness of some of these cricket fans, desperate to find some illusive recognition for their chosen sport.
Dear #whoismariasharapova is nt knowing @sachin_rt can trend u worldwide, Just imagine if you knew him! @_rt_sachin pic.twitter.com/bL0Ax6Lvgf
— Comedy One (@ComedyOneIndia) July 3, 2014
So, congratulations cricket fans! More people know who Sachin Tendulkar is now than they did last week. Unfortunately, it comes at the expense of people thinking that cricket fans are worse than soccer fans when it comes to their touchiness over the State of Their Sport’s Popularity.
