Former England cricketer Alan Mullally was involved in an objectionable social media interaction with an Indian fan on the day Britain has thrown the air over Europe in turmoil by voting to eject themselves from the European Union. In the conversation, Mullally typified India as a place from ‘where people want to get out of’ and where making ‘popadoms’ is how people spend their time.
In what can be called the biggest political earthquake of the recent past, Britain has voted to cut itself off from the rest of the continent’s union, with the Brexit camp casting its inability to take on more immigrants and economic pressure, saying that a ‘breaking point’ has been reached.
While a lot of people in the country voted for Britain to remain as part of EU and are disappointed with the result of the vote, primarily in London and Scotland, many of England’s population are deliriously happy at this perceived freedom from obligations. Interestingly, most people who voted for the exit are older people, in which bracket Mullally also falls.
The 46-year-old Mullally retired from first-class cricket in 2004, and now lives in Australia. He has been in the news after his playing days for driving under the influence of alcohol several times.
While the implications of Britain’s tragic decision will not reach India as much as the country’s European neighbours, many from India have been saying how this EU referendum is a sign of backwardness, a throwback to the mentality that had seen Britain ruling India for centuries.
Fiery exchange on politics fuelled by cricket
Sourav Chatterjee, an Indian fan, had a surprise guest on one of his Facebook status messages – Allan Mullally, with whom a highly idiomatic exchange was carried out. Mullally commented, “How’s that chip on your shoulder?”, suggesting that an old grudge had been rekindled in Indians against Britain.
The fan retorted, “Doing fine. Just borrowed a bit off the block that's on yours,” referring to the bigger grudge that all voters for Brexit had shown in closing out the rest of the continent.
Mullally replied, talking about how unconcerned Indians should be at recent developments – “We say jump, you lot say how high. Enjoy.”
The fan retorted this time – “Things will change like it did in cricket. Will enjoy.”
With cricket having been brought up, Mullally seemed to gather more venom in his replies, perhaps some bad memories having been brought back.
He said, “We gave you cricket be grateful , you could have still just been no one from nowhere shire...You’re just a place people want to get out of...You keep making those popadoms brother.”
The best retort of the conversation was saved for the last. The Indian fan replied to the popadom statement – “Don't need to. We have out of work cricketers like you to make them for us.”
Screenshots of the conversation and the Facebook post that started it –
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