Hasan Ali's social media trial - A sign of the times we live in

It was the most intense moment of this world cup. Just an over and 3 more balls left and Australia still needed close to 20 runs. Shaheen was bowling quite superbly and runs were hard to come by.

While the Australians were chancing their arm after every ball, it wasn’t really working for them. The stadium was screaming for the Pakistan team and the green in the stadium was much more the dominant colour. Could they, having won 5 out of 5 matches, continue to stay unbeaten and make the world cup final? That’s when it happened.

Matt Wade swung high towards midwicket and Hasan Ali, who wasn’t feeling too well in the previous over and had asked for the medical staff to come out, started sprinting towards the ball. He covered sufficient ground to reach the ball and had the catch under control.

Another wicket at that point and it could be all over for Australia. Pakistan had caught everything that had come their way and this was a relatively easy catch for all practical purposes. But it wasn’t to be. Hasan dropped it and perhaps dropped the World Cup as well. The next 3 balls were all muscled by Matt Wade for six and it was Australia and not Pakistan who were in the final.

Social Media doing more harm than good?

For the next day and a half, it was all hate. Hasan Ali was trending across all social media platforms. The kind of messages being written were vile and hateful and his reputation and credibility was being torn to shreds.

It was as if he had done a crime of serious proportions and did not deserve a sympathetic shoulder. He needed to be punished and that too immediately. It was a social media trial with one result. Hasan Ali had to be made an example of so that in future cricketers don’t dare drop such catches and let the country down. That they are traitors was the underlying trend.

Peddling hate is the new trend we are seeing and that’s not the idea of cricket we stand for. It is not what we believe in and we will not tolerate this as a society. It is a cricket match that’s in question and there will always be a winner and a loser. It has nothing to do with one's family, wife or daughter and anyone who violates this norm deserves the highest punishment. Such people are either delusional or not fit for civilised society.

Each of these acts are a slur against humanity and such trolls go against the very grain of what we stand for - the ethical aspect of sport. Every cricketer deserves better and in this day and age when seeing sport is in itself a satisfaction, they need to be protected and not humiliated. Anyone who violates the basic human code is a real disgrace and the sooner we realise this the better.