<p>Indian badminton's glamour girl Jwala Gutta today rubbished the controversy surrounding Maria Sharapova, saying that the tennis great should not be criticised for not knowing Sachin Tendulkar since cricket was a game played in a few countries.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Tendulkar had watched a few matches from the Royal Box at Wimbledon and when asked about cricket legend, the Russian beauty had said at a press conference that she did not know about him, causing a furore among Indian cricket fans.<br /><br />"Cricket is played in 12 countries. Tennis is played in 200 countries and badminton in 150 countries. These are simple facts that I told you. <br /><br />Nobody even knows what cricket is in the US. You can't really blame Sharapova, don't know why it's a big controversy," ace doubles shuttler told PTI.<br /><br />"The controversy was really stupid. What is wrong if she does not know Tendulkar? Of course it's fair enough," Jwala said on the sidelines of a student felicitation programme at the Science City Auditorium.<br /><br />Jwala also spoke about the ongoing FIFA World Cup and said she's a big fan of Diego Maradona hence she would hope Argentina win the title tonight.<br /><br />"I don't know many footballers except Maradona and Messi. Please don't create a Sharapova like controversy," she pleaded before adding: "I am not really following the World Cup due to the scheduling as I've practice in the morning.<br /><br />"But I am a big fan of Maradona so I will be hoping that Argentina win. It's been a long time that they won. When I grew up my dad used to give example of Maradona," she said.<br /><br />Jwala picked India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni as her "favourite cricketer".<br />She also gave a peptalk to students and said,"Failure and triumphs are parts of life. <br /><br />If you keep winning all the time, you may not learn a lot, but failure has a lot to teach. Instead of getting depressed, you should analyse your failure and strive to overcome.<br /><br />"If I lose a match, I don't get sad or feel down. But if I lose a close match, I surely have sleepless nights. I always think and try to analyse what went wrong and rectify them."</p>
<p>Indian badminton's glamour girl Jwala Gutta today rubbished the controversy surrounding Maria Sharapova, saying that the tennis great should not be criticised for not knowing Sachin Tendulkar since cricket was a game played in a few countries.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Tendulkar had watched a few matches from the Royal Box at Wimbledon and when asked about cricket legend, the Russian beauty had said at a press conference that she did not know about him, causing a furore among Indian cricket fans.<br /><br />"Cricket is played in 12 countries. Tennis is played in 200 countries and badminton in 150 countries. These are simple facts that I told you. <br /><br />Nobody even knows what cricket is in the US. You can't really blame Sharapova, don't know why it's a big controversy," ace doubles shuttler told PTI.<br /><br />"The controversy was really stupid. What is wrong if she does not know Tendulkar? Of course it's fair enough," Jwala said on the sidelines of a student felicitation programme at the Science City Auditorium.<br /><br />Jwala also spoke about the ongoing FIFA World Cup and said she's a big fan of Diego Maradona hence she would hope Argentina win the title tonight.<br /><br />"I don't know many footballers except Maradona and Messi. Please don't create a Sharapova like controversy," she pleaded before adding: "I am not really following the World Cup due to the scheduling as I've practice in the morning.<br /><br />"But I am a big fan of Maradona so I will be hoping that Argentina win. It's been a long time that they won. When I grew up my dad used to give example of Maradona," she said.<br /><br />Jwala picked India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni as her "favourite cricketer".<br />She also gave a peptalk to students and said,"Failure and triumphs are parts of life. <br /><br />If you keep winning all the time, you may not learn a lot, but failure has a lot to teach. Instead of getting depressed, you should analyse your failure and strive to overcome.<br /><br />"If I lose a match, I don't get sad or feel down. But if I lose a close match, I surely have sleepless nights. I always think and try to analyse what went wrong and rectify them."</p>