Rohit Sharma: Breaking the Mold of the 'Ideal' Athlete

Shama Mohamed, the Congress party’s national spokesperson, caused a major controversy when she made derogatory remarks about Rohit Sharma, including calling him ‘fat’, in a now-deleted post on X. Her comments sparked widespread outrage, prompting the party to disavow her words and instruct her to remove the post. However, the damage had already been done, as Mohamed had offended countless people with her insensitive and thoughtless comments. This incident highlighted a lack of decorum on her part and resulted in her making numerous enemies.

Does Rohit Sharma, India’s Test and One-Day International captain, the man who steered the team to the T20 World Cup title eight months ago and to the final of the 50-over World Cup in November 2023, portray the ‘image’ of the ‘ideal’ athlete that the world has come to expect of professional sportspersons? One would have to say no. But is he fat and overweight? An emphatic no to that too.

More than fat, we should be talking fit. Is Rohit Sharma fit enough to play international cricket? Definitely yes. Is he fit enough to play match after match, two 50-over games in three nights in a high-pressure setting? Oh yes, most certainly. Is he fit enough to bat long periods without running out of steam? You bet. Is he fit enough to run ones and twos and the occasional threes, both for himself and his batting colleagues? Kidding, right? Is he fit enough to throw himself around in the infield and make snazzy stops? Were you watching Sunday night’s Champions Trophy encounter in Dubai against New Zealand? Or the previous ones against Bangladesh and Pakistan? Well, you have your answer. Is he fit enough to take sharp, reflex catches in the slip cordon? Yes, yes and yes, the drop to deny Axar Patel a hat-trick against Bangladesh notwithstanding.

In effect, is Rohit Sharma cricket-fit? Taking all things into consideration once, and then again and again, the answer is a resounding yes. And that is all that should matter.

Is there a template, a blueprint, an ‘image’ – that word again – an individual must project to be accepted as a professional sportsperson? If there is, isn’t that an image of our making? Rohit Sharma is the captain of the Indian cricket team, a team that is followed and scrutinised and backed and criticised and admired and admonished by a billion fans. He is a smart, intelligent, grounded, self-critical young man – 37 might be considered not-so-young from a cricketing age standpoint, but how do we class ‘regular’ 37-year-olds – with a deep sense of responsibility. He might not fit our expectation of how he should appear physically, but that hasn’t pulled him down in any way, it hasn’t prevented him from being the best cricketing version of himself day after day, for more than 17 years at the highest level.

There was a time in the 1980s and the 1990s when it was fashionable to call Arjuna Ranatunga ‘fat’. Sri Lanka’s World Cup-winning captain repeatedly cocked a snook at his critics, once replying famously to an Indian journalist in New Delhi during the 1996 World Cup, “I run very well between the wickets, my wife doesn’t complain. So, what’s your problem?” The flashing dimples in both cheeks took away any perceived edge from his answer. Ranatunga didn’t fit the perception of how a competitive sportsperson ought to look, but hey, that didn’t stop him from scoring runs. Running between the wickets. Bowling competent seam-up. Making smart stops in the field. And thinking about the game, with clarity and intelligence and the cunningness – in a good way – required to be one step ahead of the opposition in international cricket.

Rohit is too chilled to be too affected by Mohamed’s uncalled for observations, both pertaining to his weight and to his standing among those that have led India. He has always been comfortable in his own skin, and he knows that till such time that he is pulling his weight – no pun intended whatsoever – as an Indian cricketer, he will remain insulated from perceptions and slights, deliberate or otherwise. He is answerable to his colleagues, his teammates, his coaching and support staff, to the stakeholders of Indian cricket but more than anything else, to his own conscience because he is a conscientious man, nothing less. He might not have the chiselled look of a Virat Kohli or a Hardik Pandya, but Rohit Sharma is a champion. And continues to be one. Maybe that should count for something, Shama Mohamed?

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