Off The Field

Sehwag is outspoken of his dislike for me: Maxwell on ‘10 crore cheerleader’ comment

Written by Sumit Seth

Last year, eyeing to make a Test cricket return in the Ashes, Glenn Maxwell had turned his focus to county cricket and, thus, opted out of the IPL. Maxwell, who was a part of the 2019 World Cup, however never made it to the Test side. Ahead of IPL 2020, Maxwell made himself available and was roped in by his former IPL team Kings XI Punjab for a whopping 10.75 crore price.

However, his stint with KXIP in IPL 2020 was a huge disappointment since Maxwell turned out to be one of the weak links of the franchise in the 13th edition. In 13 matches, the Australian all-rounder only managed to score 108 runs at an average of 15.42 and striking at 101.88. KL Rahul’s Kings XI Punjab ended up 6th on the points table and failed to qualify for the playoffs.

After the conclusion of the IPL 2020, Sehwag ins his review of players, criticised his former KXIP teammate Glenn Maxwell and called him a “10-crore cheerleader” who was on a “highly paid vacation”.

“Glenn Maxwell. This 10-crore cheerleader proved costly for Punjab. And he has had a bad record of shirking work over the past few seasons. But this season he went to new extreme. This is what you call a highly-paid vacation,” Sehwag said.

The Australian cricketer, who had taken a sabbatical last year, due to his struggle with depression has finally responded to Sehwag’s ‘outspoken’ remarks.

“It’s ok. Viru is pretty outspoken with his dislike of me, and that’s fine. He’s allowed to say whatever he likes. He’s in the media for such statements, so that’s fine. I deal with that and move on, and take it with a grain of salt with Sehwag,” Maxwell was quoted as saying by The West Australian.

“I think I’m better equipped [after last year’s sabbatical] with dealing with those sorts of things [criticisms] now. I think in hindsight it was a pretty good time to go through something like that where I was able to put some groundwork in to deal with adversity. This year has certainly been a massive test of it.”

About the author

Sumit Seth