Sachin Tendulkar enters the world of Reddit as brand ambassador; fans can't keep calm: 'Never thought this would happen'
In a significant move on the leading social media platform, Reddit announced Indian cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar as its new brand ambassador on Wednesday, June 18. This partnership with the 'God of Cricket' is aimed at reflecting Reddit's growing focus on sports communities and its commitment to uniting fans across the globe through shared interests and passions.
The news has left fans stunned on the platform.
The 'God of Cricket' will start engaging with users on the platform via his official Reddit profile, under the name u/SachinTendulkar. As a part of the collab, the Master Blaster himself is stepping into the Reddit arena!
Sachin is expected to drop by the fan-run r/SachinTendulkar subreddit and share personal reflections, match insights, other exclusive content, and more.
Sachin Tendulkar shares his view on becoming Reddit's new brand ambassador
The social media platform is tapping into the sport's massive popularity in India and other regions to draw the attention of more sports fans across the platform. Sachin Tendulkar joining as its new global brand ambassador is a fresh example of this. 'For me, cricket has always been about that pure connection with people, on and off the field. In getting to know Reddit, what stands out is the sheer passion that brings its communities together,' said Sachin Tendulkar.
'I'm especially looking forward to discovering conversations on r/IndiaCricket and r/IndianSports. It's a unique platform where people truly share what they love. This association gives me an opportunity to connect with fans in new ways and celebrate our shared love for sports.'
Redditors react to Sachin Tendulkar's new partnership
As soon as the announcement surfaced on social media, it quickly grabbed the attention of Redditors. A thread with a title, "Cricket Legend Sachin Tendulkar Named Brand Ambassador for Reddit," grabbed massive attention from fans.
According to some, this is a great decision by Reddit, while one said, "The GOD blessed Reddit :)" Another added, 'That's wild.'
A shocked user reacted, saying, "Damn that's crazy Ngl never thought this would happen." On the other hand, a user said, "Bas matlab Reddit barbaad hai. Jaise Spinny logon ko thagta hai waisei Reddit bhi karega ab."
"A fucking sellout. He doesn't deserve this attention at all," another wrote.
Concerned that the player knows about all that is discussed about him on the platform, a user said, "Does he know what all is said about him on reddit."
"Trust me , this would be the start of the ending . Soon influencers will start their karma farming. Soon reels will be introduced"
What makes Sachin Tendulkar the ideal choice as brand ambassador?
The move comes as cricket-related subreddits see a surge in activity, fueling Reddit's growing user base across the globe, with India emerging as a key driver of this momentum.
Sachin Tendulkar's involvement with Reddit follows a series of similar sports partnerships.
Previous year, Reddit entered into a partnership with Serie A, Italy's top football league, and has also partnered with major U.S. sports organisations in the past, like the NFL, NBA, MLB, PGA Tour, and NASCAR.
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Time of India
26 minutes ago
- Time of India
IND vs ENG First Test: Onus on openers, over-reliance on Bumrah – strengths and weaknesses of Shubman Gill-led India
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The Hindu
27 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Breaking point — A closer look at what's going wrong with Indian football
When the full-time whistle blew at the Kai Tak Stadium in Hong Kong, China, the Indian football team stood frozen — hapless and defeated. A team that India had hammered for four goals without reply in their previous clash just beat the Blue Tigers 1–0 — another loss for India to a lower-ranked opponent (26 spots) and the first loss to Hong Kong in a competitive fixture since 1993. The men's football team — and the state of Indian football — remain in tatters. India could no longer afford to put a foot wrong in its next four matches if it wanted to qualify for the 2027 Asian Cup. But where did it all go wrong for the national team? The lion's share of blame has typically fallen on head coach Manolo Marquez. 'Yeah, there have been mistakes by the coach. When you are playing a new opponent — how they could play, whether they will attack or defend — these are things a coach should explain to his players well,' Subrata Bhattacharya, former India defender, tells Sportstar. 'I think that communication and general coordination among players were missing. As a result, every player played their individual game.' Marquez, who won the Indian Super League (ISL) — India's top flight — title with Hyderabad FC, took charge of the team after Igor Stimac was shown the door in June last year, following a poor showing at the 2023 Asian Cup and an early exit from the World Cup qualifiers. Failure to break the duck: India has yet to win a competitive match under head coach Manolo Marquez. | Photo Credit: AIFF Media But in the year since he has taken charge, India has won just one match in eight — an international friendly against the Maldives. 'If you look at it, the entire team — on and off the ground — has been in a mess,' Bhaichung Bhutia, former India striker and captain, adds. 'I think it is time for Kalyan Chaubey (president of the All India Football Federation [AIFF]) to step down as president. Even the coach, Manolo (Marquez), looks to be stepping down soon. And this guy (Kalyan) bypassed the entire technical committee (to select the coach).' 'In that Executive Committee meeting, I had protested that the coach can't be selected by the president. There has to be a thorough discussion.' A systemic failure: Bhaichung Bhutia, former India striker and captain, feels the mess in Indian football iis both on and off the field. | Photo Credit: Rajeev Bhatt/The Hindu 'Obviously, Manolo is a great coach, but if the technical committee had sat with him and spoken about the plans and ideas, rather than just bypassing and forcing everybody in the ExCo committee to accept it…' Bhutia added. 'Then there have been three general secretaries (Shaji Prabhakaran, Anilkumar Prabhakaran and M. Satyanarayan) in two-and-a-half years under Chaubey. I think things are quite bad when you offer USD 50,000 for a win.' Lack of enough international games Cash incentives have hardly led to encouraging results for the national team. In 2006, the men's team was promised one lakh rupees should it beat Japan, ranked 100 spots above it, and Rs. 50,000 for a draw. Hong Kong, meanwhile, is a side ranked 26 spots below India. India lost on both occasions: 0–6 to Japan and 0–1 to Hong Kong. Could that money be invested to arrange more international games? Perhaps. 'The main problem for our boys is that we don't play enough international matches. That helps in gauging the speed, technical ability and level of our players against international competitors, especially those from Asia,' Subrata adds. In the past year, Argentina, the best-ranked team and the world champion, played 18 games. Qatar, the Asian champion, played 15, while Uzbekistan, the first Central Asian country to qualify for the World Cup, played 13. India played just 10. Compared to their own standards, the Blue Tigers played 16 matches in their build-up to the Asian Cup in one calendar year, when they entered the top 100 of FIFA rankings after five years. As for Marquez, the damage to the team's morale after the loss was evident, but he defended his boys despite the defeat. 'The dressing room is like a funeral, practically. They know that we are not in a good moment,' Marquez told the press after the match. 'In terms of scores, it was difficult for us to score, but the team indeed played with more order than in other games. Unfortunately, we couldn't get any points here.' Interestingly, when the two sides last met in 2022, India had opened the scoring in 55 seconds, eventually winning the match 4–0. Three years later, the tables have turned. This was less a humiliating defeat and more a consequence of systemic failures — poor decision-making and a fractured youth development pipeline. The age-old striker problem India's Achilles' heel over the past decade has been the absence of an internationally proven striker — one who delivers on big occasions beyond club football. In the last 15 years, successful forwards at the national level like Robin Singh — an I-League and Federation Cup winner with Bengaluru FC in 2014 — and Manvir Singh — with eight national trophies — have but failed to maintain consistency with the national team. Robin scored more than one goal annually just once in his five-year international career, while Manvir, who rarely starts as a striker for his club side, has not found the net since November 2023. 'It's true that our national team has struggled to secure wins against teams such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Thailand and Hong Kong. However, it's unrealistic to expect wins without scoring goals,' Chaubey said in a press conference on June 13. 'This clearly highlights the lack of goal-scoring abilities and shortage of effective Indian strikers. A practical, collective decision is urgently required to increase match time for the Indian strikers.' The crisis got so dire that a 40-year-old Sunil Chhetri (above) was summoned out of international retirement. Back against the wall: Sunil Chhetri, India's record goalscorer, came out of international retirement to help the team, earlier this year. He has yet to score in a competitive match since. | Photo Credit: AIFF Media 'We obviously appreciate Sunil Chhetri's effort of being so sincere, dedicated and fit at the age of 40, but as a nation, we also need to see the supply of more forwards.' RELATED: Who can succeed Sunil Chhetri as India's striker — a deep dive into what the numbers say Myopic scouting has compounded the issue — I-League-proven strikers have remained sidelined. Lalrinzuala Lalbiaknia, for example, scored 27 times times for Aizawl last season and broke Chhetri's record the season before, with 15 strikes. Meanwhile, Edmund Lalrindika helped Inter Kashi finish second in the I-League this season, with five goals and as many assists. Well done to Lalrinzuala for becoming the top scorer in the I-League this season! I'm proud of his achievement. Lalrinzuala, who is from Serchhip district and plays for Aizawl FC, has scored 15 goals in the 2023-24 season, breaking Sunil Chhetri's previous record of 14 goals. — Lalduhoma (@Lal_Duhoma) March 29, 2024 Lalrinzuala has yet to play for the national team, while Edmund has played 45 minutes in eight games under Marquez (below), with no game time this year so far. On the other hand, India started Ashique Kuruniyan as a No. 9 — someone who played on the wings under former coach Stimac and primarily as a left wing-back for his club Mohun Bagan Super Giant last season. His pace was effective, but when it mattered most — a chance against the run of play and on goal at the goalkeeper's far post — he shot it wide. A brilliant pass and an open goal, but Ashique Kuruniyan fails to keep his shot on target 😱 India's best chance till now to break the deadlock!#HGKIND#ACQ2027#BlueTigers#IndianFootball ⚽ — FanCode (@FanCode) June 10, 2025 Financial disparity Indian football remained on the short end of the stick from the Centre for its unimpressive performances outside South Asia. Though it won three trophies at home in 2023, its funding from the Central Government fell from INR 30 crore in 2019 to INR 7.38 crore in 2023. The same year, FIFA allotted USD 469 million for football development to its member nations, with each country receiving a minimum of USD 2 million. The funds for India's youth development trickled down to USD 0.43 million — a mere 21.5 per cent. A glaring difference: Under AIFF president, while India's investment in youth development has shrunk, the federation's budget has risen by 54 per cent. | Photo Credit: PTI Meanwhile, the AIFF's budget ballooned by 54 per cent — from a budget of INR 87 crore for 2022–23, to INR 134 crore for the next financial year. 'I think the management, with Mr Chaubey in charge, is going to get even worse. He's got no clue about how to get the entire structure in line and get football completely aligned with grassroots development. I think the set-up and the structure itself are missing, and a lot of important changes have to be made,' Bhutia says. 'All hope is not lost yet. We have to focus more and more on youth development, and a turnaround is still possible,' an optimistic Subrata quips. A notable example here would be Uzbekistan. The Central Asian nation, which was ranked just two spots above India in 2018, invested heavily in youth football, spending about USD 1.4 million a year, allotted to it through the FIFA Forward Programme, between 2016 and 2021. Trailblazers: Uzbekistan benefitted from its investment in youth development to finally qualify for the its first-ever men's senior FIFA World Cup. | Photo Credit: REUTERS It won the U-23 AFC Asian Cup and the U-16 CAFA Championship in 2018, then the U-19 CAFA Championship in 2022, the U-20 Asian Cup and the U-20 CAFA Championship in 2023, eventually qualifying for its first-ever senior men's World Cup. RELATED: Rise of the White Wolves — A tale of Uzbekistan and its journey to FIFA World Cup 2026 An alternative solution While the need to get the grassroots in order is the most plausible solution, a quick-fire remedy would be the use of Indian-origin and naturalised players. Qatar has championed this method, winning consecutive AFC Asian Cups with the help of naturalised personnel — most importantly Almoez Ali, its top scorer in the 2019 campaign, who was born in Sudan but was naturalised in 2013. India's last opponent, Hong Kong, has been a huge beneficiary of naturalisation, qualifying for the AFC Asian Cup after 55 years. At the tournament, it had the joint-most number of naturalised players, 14, tied with Malaysia. Of the 23 players in its squad for the India game, 11 were naturalised, having given up the passports of their native countries to switch nationalities and obtain naturalisation in Hong Kong. Six of them constituted the starting 11. Quality import: Stefan Pereira, who scored the winning goal for Hong Kong against India, is a naturalised Brazilian. | Photo Credit: Instagram/@stefan_pereira Thailand, on the other hand, aggressively scouted foreign players of Thai origin in the last decade, creating a team that qualified for consecutive knockouts in the Asian Cup for the first time. The side had players like Charyl Chappuis (born in Switzerland to a Thai mother), Elias Dolah (Thai mother, born in Sweden), and Tristan Do (born in France to a Thai father). 'The AIFF is in communication with 33 players who fall into the category of OCI. We are committed to aligning with the laws of the land and the framework of the FIFA statutes for the inclusion of OCI players in India'Kalyan Chaubey, AIFF President For India, neither of these provisions has borne fruit because it does not permit Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) to represent the country internationally since 2008. Also, dual citizenship is not allowed in India under the Constitution and the Citizenship Act of 1955. So, OCI and PIO cardholders must surrender their foreign passports and stay in the country for at least 12 months to apply for an Indian passport. 'I'm not sure if there is any other country that is not allowing players of their origin to represent their country,' Stimac had said during the AFC Asian Cup. 'It is a huge handicap because there are many good players of Indian origin playing in the top leagues of Europe. So it could be a huge help if we speak about bigger achievements.' A major problem: Former India coach Igor Stimac had rued the lack of provisions to allow OCIs and PIOs to play for the Indian national team. | Photo Credit: REUTERS If a workaround is found, footballers such as Yan Dhanda (Heart of Midlothian, Scotland), Joshua Pynadath (Dordrecht, Netherlands) and Dilan Markanday (Chesterfield, England) could get a chance to play for India. 'The AIFF is in communication with 33 players who fall into the category of OCI. Some of them have received their OCI cards, and others are in the process of attaining the same, with the assistance of the AIFF,' Chaubey said. 'We are committed to aligning with the laws of the land and the framework of the FIFA statutes for the inclusion of OCI players in India,' Chaubey added in the presser. The chaos is not just technical — it's cultural. 'We need stories for young generations to watch and get inspired. We got it from our previous generations and from very good coaches (like PK Banerjee, Amal Dutta),' Subrata says. 'Where are such stories now? How will the motivation come?' What's next for the future? Subrata Bhattacharya, former India defender, feels more success stories for the future generations and grassroots development are the only ways forward. | Photo Credit: Vino John/The Hindu At the 1952 Olympics, India lost 1–10 to Czechoslovakia. It was one of the chapters that was looked down on as 'Never Again!' The Blue Tigers achieved their best-ever finish at the next Olympic Games, finishing fourth, and then clinched gold at the 1962 Asian Games, beating Japan and South Korea in the process. Over half a century after its golden era, Indian football now faces its darkest hour. Unless it tears down the rot and rebuilds from ruin, Indian football's legacy will become its tombstone — a shattered Parthenon, its ruins whispering of wasted potential.
Indian Express
29 minutes ago
- Indian Express
‘So cringe': Indians in Toronto criticised for loud street celebration, video goes viral
Indians often move abroad in search of better education, career prospects, healthcare, and quality of life. While they adapt to new surroundings, many also recreate familiar cultural moments from back home. However, a recent attempt at such a cultural recreation in Toronto has sparked criticism online, for all the wrong reasons. A video that's now going viral shows a group of Indian men playing loud music and dancing on the streets of Toronto, causing what many called a public disturbance. The clip was shared on X by Indian National Congress spokesperson Lavanya Ballal Jain (@LavanyaBallal), who commented, 'We Indians love our country so much that we run away from here at the first opportunity. And we take no time in converting foreign countries into our noisy street corners. This is Toronto.' The post has garnered over 478.2K views and 3K likes. We indians love our country so much that we run away from here at the first opportunity. And we take no time in converting foreign countries into our noisy street corners. This is Toronto. — Lavanya Ballal Jain official (@LavanyaBallal) June 16, 2025 The comment section reflected a divided public opinion. One user from Australia said, 'I live in Australia. I love Australia for its culture and infrastructure. I don't like when people from other countries behave in a way that might be okay in that country but it is ruining the culture of the country they are living in. Sad to see this kind of behaviour.' Another user linked the incident to global perceptions of India, commenting, 'No wonder why Indian passport ranking dropped to 85 from 50s.' A third user commented, 'A majority of Indians lack civic sense, whether they live in India or travel abroad or stay abroad. Civic sense needs to be inculcated right from childhood by the family & strict rules to be implemented by civic authorities. Unfortunately none of this happens & most grow up uncouth.' However, not everyone agreed with the criticism. A fourth user came to the defense of the group and said, 'It's pretty common of young age people dancing and enjoying and they are not disturbing anyone, I have even seen locals dancing on weekends. But blaming only Indians shows inferiority complex.' This isn't the first time such cultural expressions by Indians abroad have stirred debate. In another recent incident, a group of Indian tourists sang the iconic Hindi song Aaja Sanam Madhur Chandni Mein at the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Though the impromptu Bollywood-style jam session delighted some, others called it inappropriate. Similarly, in Austria's old town of Innsbruck, a group of 43 Gujarati and Marwadi tourists were criticised for insisting on playing their own music and performing Garba despite local street performers initially refusing. The artists warned that such actions might attract trouble from the police, but eventually gave in. What followed was a five-minute Garba celebration that, while joyful, raised eyebrows over cultural sensitivity and respect for local rules.
