Dhoni was made hero by PR team but Yuvraj took us to finals: Gambhir

Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir once again made the headlines with his bold comment and this time he lashed out against 'hero worship' in Indian cricket, reckons the obsession over top stars  and said that the media and broadcasters should focus on other performers too.

Gambhir however not mentioning MS Dhoni's name said that one individual and his PR team made him hero of 2007 and 2011 World Cup but in reality it was Yuvraj Singh, who took India to the final of both the tournament.

"He (Yuvraj) always says I won the World Cup but I believe that the man who took us to the finals of the 2011 and 2007 World Cups was Yuvraj Singh, I think he was the man of the tournament in both tournaments," Gambhir told News18.

"I am not sure (though Yuvraj did win the award in 2011, Shahid Afridi was the Man of the Tournament in the 2007 T20 World Cup). But it's unfortunate that when we talk about the 2007 and 2011 World Cups, we don't take Yuvraj Singh's name. Why not? It's only and only marketing and PR and portraying one individual as the biggest and everyone else as smaller than him," he said.

"No one is underrated, it's all PR and marketing. We have been told who won us the 2007 and 2011 World Cups [but] it was not one individual it was the entire team. No one individual can win a big tournament. If that was the case, India would've had 5-10 World Cups," he added.

Gambhir also said that the reason behind India not being able to win ICC trophy for a while because it was not a team-obsessed country but rather a nation obsessed with individuals.

"A lot of people won't say this but this is the truth and I think I should say this because it should come in front of the world: our country is not a team-obsessed country but an individual-obsessed country," he said.