According to his Twitter bio, Harsh Goenka, the chairman of RPG Enterprises, and brother of Sanjiv Goenka, the owner of Indian Premier League outfit the Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS), claims to love people and cricket.
However, that didn’t seem to alert him to the consequences of deriding one of India’s most celebrated sporting icons in favour of the Australian captain whose antics in the recently concluded Test series against the Indian team made him Public Enemy No. 1.
His tweet on Thursday evening, which was live for a couple of hours before being taken down, following Steve Smith’s outstanding innings that guided RPS to victory over Mumbai Indians didn’t go down well with Indian cricket fans.
Goenka took Smith’s match-winning unbeaten 84 as an opportunity to praise the controversial decision to hand him the captaincy over MS Dhoni.
He claimed that the innings showed how Smith “overshadows’ Dhoni totally”, therefore justifying the decision to name him captain instead.
Twitter retaliated…
@hvgoenka Don't you dare insult Dhoni. Your team has got supporters coz of the main man.
— Rashmi Srivastava (@10_Rashmi) April 6, 2017
@hvgoenka You will instantly lose 80% of the supporters the day Dhoni leaves the team ...btw you already lost 20% when you tweeted this!
— Drunk BATMAN (@Caped_Humor) April 6, 2017
@hvgoenka According to your logic if Dhoni overshadows Smith in next match will you make him the captain again 😂😂#RPSvMI
— Dhoni ~ SRH (@Pranavv9999) April 6, 2017
@csushma93 @FarziCricketer Harsh Goenka has completely lost it. Steve Smith has played a gem of an innings,no point of abusing him. Abuse Harsh Goenka. #RespectDhoni
— Nisarg Mistry (@nisarg1999) April 6, 2017
@hvgoenka Remember everyone supports Pune due to one reason that is Dhoni. Dhoni nahi toh Pune kuch bhi nahi. Please don't disrespect him.
— Nisarg Mistry (@nisarg1999) April 6, 2017
@hvgoenka @vikramkelkar I think Mr. Goenka missed the last ball of 19th over...Just see the replay and your respect for @msdhoni will get up
— Naresh Rathi (@NareshLalita) April 6, 2017
@hvgoenka Praising Smith is fine but degrading Dhoni is not the way. You forgot that @msdhoni came to bat lower in the order.
— Kirtika Garg (@kirtika_msd) April 6, 2017
@hvgoenka As MS always Says, Never take your wins to Head - losses to heart. Such outbursts are common when you are desperate for success. Take rest
— Prabhu 🏏 (@Cricprabhu) April 6, 2017
@hvgoenka Dhoni was intentionally giving strike to Smith as he was settled. That's called team spirit which you businessmen would never understand.
— Vaibhav (@vabskrishna) April 6, 2017
@hvgoenka It May Be Smith's Day Today ... Learn To Respect The Legend Who Had Won All The Trophies For His Nation ... B4 Comparing With Someone 😑
— 👊 Dhoni Fan Here 💪 (@HariMsd48) April 6, 2017
Goenka then posted this:
Clear conscience is the best pillow for a sound sleep.
— Harsh Goenka (@hvgoenka) April 7, 2017