I am engaging with it and laughing a lot, says Aussie Journalist Dennis Freedman after fans' backlash

Australian journalist Dennis Freedman has been at the receiving end of hatred from the Indian fans and some Pakistani fans on social media after he posted a picture of Virat Kohli.

Dennis is a renowned cricket fan/journalist on Twitter, who is known for his humorous posts. Even though he is from Australia, he has a special place for the Pakistan team in his heart and is set to tour the country for a documentary on their cricket.

He also likes to pull the legs of all the Indian fans on his social media timelines by posting some hilarious stuff against the Indian team and their cricketers.

Recently, he posted a photograph of the Indian cricketers who swept the stands at the Eden Gardens as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan on Gandhi Jayanti last year.

This got him a lot of slack across all the social media platforms by the Indian cricket fans and some Pakistani supporters joined hands with their Indian counterparts and went on a rant against the Aussie. Some even crossed their line by hurling abusing remarks at him.

This was taken so seriously by most of the Indian fans that even out-of-favour Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh expressed his displeasure at his comments.

"Shame on this guy to actually put such a comment. It is very stupid of this guy to write something on Virat Kohli or for that matter anyone. You have got to maintain the dignity and understand who we are talking about and you do not need to show anyone down. At the end of the day we are all human beings whether we are Australians, Indians or Pakistanis. Let us just respect the fact that we are human beings without putting anyone down," Harbhajan said in an interview with India Today.

But, Dennis is taking this rage in jest and says that what's going on is like water off duck's back for me before adding that he is engaging with it and laughing a lot.

"Don't feel sorry for it. People are just being ar*****s. It is water off duck's back for me. Actually, I am engaging with it and laughing a lot. This is very hilarious," he told Sportskeeda when asked about how he is dealing with the backlash.

Just because of the way the Indian fans react to his posts, he likes to pull their legs often and sometimes, pays the price for it. Though most of the Indian fans take his posts seriously, I have been following him since 2014 and have always found his posts funny.

The ones who get agitated by his tweets are the ones who celebrate former Indian cricketers taking a dig at the opposition players on Twitter and in the commentary box. Why double standards?

There are few things that are supposed to be taken with a pinch of salt and the posts by Dennis on his social media accounts belong to that category. It is very unfortunate that a satirist like Dennis Freedman is forced to go through this rage, but, in spite of all that, he is still managing things in the way he usually does.

After all, "Dennis does Cricket" and along with that, he does engage the fans with his humour.