India captain Rohit Sharma at the centre of fat-shaming saga, as cricket greats are left outraged by explosive now-deleted social media post

An Indian politician has deleted comments on social media after she called India Captain Rohit Sharma ‘fat’ and said the ‘opening batsman needed to lose weight’.

The saga has caused some controversy within the cricket community on the eve of India’s Champions Trophy semi-final clash against Australia on Tuesday, with Sharma looking to exact revenge on Steve Smith’s side following their Border Gavaskar Series victory earlier this year.

All India Congress Committee spokesperson Dr Shama Mohamed, 52, is understood to have taken to X to comment on Sharma’s recent form for India while criticising his captaincy.

She wrote: ‘Rohit Sharma is fat for a sportsman!’ tagging the India captain in the post.

‘Need to lose weight! And of course, the most unimpressive captain India has ever had!’

In a separate post, Mohamed had also written: ‘What is so World Class about him [Sharma] when compared to his predecessors like Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Kapil Dev, Shastri and the rest! He is a mediocre captain as well as a mediocre player who got lucky to be the captain of India.’

 

Shama Mohamed, a Congress Committee spokesperson, criticised Sharma’s recent performances online claiming he was ‘the most unimpressive India captain ever’

It comes as India get underway against Australia in the semi-final of the ICC Champions Trophy on Tuesday

Mohamed has since defended her comments on X after she faced backlash from many around the cricket community.

During an interview with ANI, she said: ‘It was a generic tweet about the fitness of a sportsperson. It was not body-shaming. I always believed a sportsperson should be fit, and I felt he was a bit overweight, so I just tweeted about that.

‘I have been attacked for no reason. When I compared him with previous captains, I put in a statement. I have the right. It is a democracy. What is wrong in saying [this]?’

But the BCCI have condemned the comments with secretary Devajit Saikia telling Reuters: ‘It is very unfortunate that these derogatory, demoralising comments are being made when the team is in the crucial stage of a global tournament.’

Ex-India cricket star Harbhajan Singh also hit out at the comments while speaking to ANI: ‘Whatever has been said about Rohit Sharma – I want to tell her that he is such a player who has served the country so much, and he is still leading the team well…

‘I don’t think anyone has this right to talk about his fitness. Had his fitness been not good, he wouldn’t have been part of the team, but he is there and that too as a captain.

‘There are many levels of fitness that you need to pass to come into the team. I want to ask her if she is a fitness coach, BCCI president or if she is related to any sport so that she knows about fitness. She is comparing him (Rohit Sharma) with a player who is still in the team. I think she doesn’t know the parameters of fitness.

‘Without knowing the facts, I don’t think anyone should talk… We should look towards Rohit Sharma’s contributions.

Mohamed has since defended her comments to ANI claiming they were comments relating to his fitness, not body-shaming

Ex-star Yograj Singh – who is also the father of Yuvraj Singh – has also criticised the comments.

‘If someone in the political system makes such a statement about a player who has brought pride to our nation, that person should be ashamed,’ he told ANI.

‘They have no right to stay in our nation. Cricket is our religion; we lost against New Zealand and Australia, and a lot of things were said about Rohit and Virat.

‘We stood up for them. I feel so sad. Action should be taken. This should not be tolerated. If I were the prime minister, I would have said, pack your bags and leave the country.’

It comes as India lost the toss against Australia in their semi-final clash on Tuesday with Smith’s side electing to bat first.

India are undefeated so far in the Champions Trophy under Sharma’s stewardship. Sharma, though, has failed to break a half-century so far at the tournament, with his highest score of 41 coming in India’s opening fixture against Bangladesh.