The date was 19th October 2013. India was playing Australia at Mohali, in the 3rd ODI of a 7 match series with both teams having won a match each. Australia won the toss and put India in to bat. After struggling at 76 for 4, they recovered brilliantly thanks to a magnificent 139 by skipper Dhoni to post 303 on the board.
India’s bowlers kept Australia on a tight leash throughout and, with just 3 overs remaining, they needed 44 with 4 wickets in hand. Ishant Sharma, who up till now had figures of 7-1-33-1, came in to bowl the 48th over, and all hell broke loose.
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The “finisher”, James Faulkner, smashed his over for 30 with 4 sixes, a four and a two, and the target now was just 14 off 2 overs. Game, set and match!
What followed thereafter for Ishant, is what we call “Trolling”, in internet’s language.
What is trolling? Someone who posts sarcastic, insulting and demeaning posts and messages about another individual in an online community or forum, with the intention of provoking responses and sentiments from people on the topic.
Ishant got ruthlessly trolled after this match by online “haters”, who put the entire blame of India’s defeat on him. Sample these:
And many others that were filled with profanities.
This is just one of many instances where India’s cricketers have been subjected to merciless trolling by “fans” when they have an off day on the field and are unable to take India to victory in a match.
The biggest victims of these trolls, over the past 6-7 years, have been Ravindra Jadeja, who is perhaps the only cricketer to have got the title of “Sir” permanently attached with his name despite not officially being knighted, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ishant Sharma, and most recently, Stuart Binny.
Why it isn’t ‘cool’ to troll
In cricket, like in any other sport or indeed in any sphere of life, one can’t have a “good day at the office” every time. There are great days when it seems like there is nothing that the player can’t pull off; a batsman’s mistimed shots go for sixes and a bowler gets wickets off long-hops, and then there are days when no matter how hard you try, luck deserts you and nothing seems to work, despite tireless efforts.
But sadly these days, when a player faces the latter, it is almost always followed by severe internet trolling, which in time, is bound to break a player’s confidence and hurt him.
It is very important for a cricket fan, or an “online troller” in this case, to understand and recognise the amount of hard work that a cricketer puts in day in and day out, in order to stay fit and in form. Almost all our cricketers started their careers at a very young age; at an age when a kid is in school and all he thinks about is friends, studies and fun.
It’s right from this tender age that these cricketers go to cricket grounds and academies, working tirelessly hard in order to hone their skills, with the ambition of making a career in the sport and representing the country one day.
Waking up at 5 in the morning, travelling long distances for cricket practice, working hard at the ground, going to school, studying, and then coming back to the ground again in the evening for more practice. It’s not something that each one of us would be committed to do, is it?
A cricketer plays U-15, U-17, U-19, then first class cricket, and knowing how tough the competition is in our country in cricket, it is not too difficult to imagine how little are the odds of a cricketer breaking in to the national team and getting a cap with the emblem on it.
These cricketers work hard, keep sweating it out in the scorching heat on summer afternoons when most of us are in the comfort of our homes or air-conditioned offices. After such efforts, does a cricketer deserve to be “trolled” based on one bad performance on a day?
There is another simple question that every such online troller needs to ask himself and answer, and it is: “Does a cricketer, on any given day, play poorly on purpose?” The obvious answer is - NO.
No batsman ever plays a shot to get out. No bowler bowls a loose delivery on purpose, wanting to be hit for a six. No fielder ever wants to misfield or drop a catch. You ask any cricketer about how they feel when they drop a catch, and their answer is that it feels so terrible that they want the earth to open and hide themselves from the searing eyes of the crowd!
That’s how sad they feel on letting their teammates and the fans down, and these “fans” troll them when they fail to deliver? Is this how merciless and impatient we have become as cricket fans?
Hate is unwarranted
Let’s take Stuart Binny’s case here, as he is the most recent victim of such hate-filled online trolling. Anyone watching him play, with an unbiased mind, would clearly see how committed he is towards every aspect of the game and how hard he tries to give his best every time he is on the field. But one not-so-impressive performance from the guy and the swords come out on social media.
I had recently done a piece on him, trying to analyse his one-day career so far, match by match, in which it was seen with stats that he has done decently well in at least 8 of the 14 matches he’s played so far. In fact, he holds the record for the best ever bowling figures in ODIs by an Indian bowler, but still fans choose to troll him online for anything and everything he does.
They even go to the extent of involving his wife in the trolls - a well-known sports presenter, and the trolls contain nonsense and derogatory language at times, that one can’t even imagine how tough it would be for players like Binny to listen to the hatred.
The vicious trolls that are common on social media:
Rohit Sharma, one of the most stylish and talented batsmen India has ever produced, is not spared either, as fans keep trolling him for his inconsistency at the highest level. He’s been called ”No-Hit” Sharma when he has failed to deliver. What is funny is that these same people start showering praise on him when he plays an innings like his 209 against Australia and 264 against Sri Lanka.
Isn’t this ironic how one hates a player on one day and then love them the next day when they excel on the field? Shouldn’t fans be supporting players through thick and thin, and not just when they do well?
Support them through failure and success
The real and sensible cricket fans would know that it’s on the toughest days that cricketers need all the support they can get from their fans. It’s just like how children need support from parents and family when they fail to do well in exams at school. Not offering any support in such times and scolding/mocking the child instead, would only make matters worse and dampen the child’s confidence, won’t it? The same applies to cricket I’d say.
A look at the list of cricketers to have played test cricket for India would tell you, that in our test history that dates back to 1932, only 285 cricketers have received the honour of wearing the India test cap. That’s how precious and tough it is to get. From a population of 1.25 billion people, only 11 represent the nation on the field of cricket. Try and imagine the pressure they play under; a cricket crazy country like ours where the first sport almost any child starts playing is cricket.
Isn’t there already enough pressure on our cricketers that we choose to subject them to more of it via these undignified online trolls?
It’s high time we as fans understand our duty towards our cricketers. They deserve our support, not our hatred and taunts through these trolls. They give us many moments of immense joy and happiness through their performances on the field, but what we have got to realise and acknowledge is the effort they have put in all their lives in order to become good enough to be able to do so.
Respect your cricketing stars, don’t shame them. They’re humans, they have families and friends, just like all of us.
Supporting and being with them in hard times will only encourage them to emerge stronger from their tough phases, and they will be able to deliver many more match-winning efforts for the country, which is something we all watch the sport for.
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