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The advent of social media has been instrumental in bridging the gap between celebrities and their fans and this applies to cricketers as well. It is not unusual to see fans engaging in direct conversation with their cricketing idols these days through different platforms, the most prevalent one being Twitter.While most comments from fans border around appreciation for their favourite players, there are instances when things start entering the territory of personal attack and sarcasm. Most of the time, the stars prefer to ignore the negativity or at best, post an overall response requesting fans to cease engaging in such acts.However, there are also times when cricketers take it on themselves to respond to comments from individual fans. Here are 5 such instances fans got epic replies from their heroes.
#5 Stuart Broad\'s tearing response to critical Aussie fan
The Ashes series has always seen a lot of banter between cricketers and fans from both England and Australia. It has increased even more due to the easy access that social media gives to the fans to make their feelings known to the players. However, the cricketers too have had their opinions to share on comments made by fans just like Stuart Broad did to an Australian fan in 2013.
The fan, who was obviously harrowed at his team’s thrashing at the hands of the English, tweeted to Broad asking why he can’t walk when he is out. The England bowler was not at all impressed by this and responded by questioning whether the Aussies do it and calling the fan a hypocrite.
Fan tweet: “Cant u walk when u get out!!”
Broad’s reply: “Like your players do? You are just a pathetic hypocrite”
#4 Rohit Sharma\'s shares his preferred nickname with fan
There are also fans who try to ask strange questions to their heroes just to try and attract attention. A few months back, Rohit Sharma gave a perfect example of how easily such fans can be handled.
During a Q&A session on Twitter, one of the fans asked Rohit about which one among ‘hit man’ and ‘maggi man’ is his favourite nickname. Instead of getting angry or reacting aggressively to such a stupid comment, Sharma made it known to the fan that he prefers ‘hitman’ as a nickname.
Fan tweet: “ur favorite nick name? Maggi man or hit man?”
Rohit’s response: “I prefer hitman”
#3 Jimmy Neesham\'s classic response to a complaining fan
New Zealand batsman Jimmy Neesham is one of the most popular cricketers on Twitter primarily due to his involvement with fans and some witty tweets. However, there have also been times when Neesham has quietened fans who have gone overboard in their criticism.
It was the India-Pakistan clash of the 2015 World Cup and a Pakistani fan was unhappy with a review going India’s way, so he tweeted a hashtag named IndianCheaters to Jimmy Neesham’s page. The Kiwi southpaw responded by pointing out that asking for a review does not qualify someone as a cheater.
Fan tweet: “@jimmyneesh #IndianCheaters”
Neesham’s reply: “I'm not sure asking for an umpire review really qualifies someone as a cheater...”
#2 MS Dhoni\'s polite bomb to a disgruntled fan
If there is one cricketer who is best at putting across his point in the most politically correct manner, it has to be India’s ODI skipper MS Dhoni. An instance from 2012 relating to a conversation between Dhoni and a Twitter fan provides ample proof of this fact.
The fan tweeted on MSD’s Twitter page about how he hopes that the star cricketer knows how much people hate him, he being one of the haters. Dhoni was quick to respond when he commented that even though the fan didn’t like him, hate was quite a strong word to use but he won’t complain as it is the fan’s choice.
Fan tweet: “I hope @msdhoni knows there are many ppl who hate him. I am one of them.”
Dhoni’s reply: “well u may not like me but hate is a very strong word to be used anyways its ur choice so I won't complain”
#1 Ravi Ashwin\'s scathing attack on critical fan
This is one of the more recent incidents of cricketers responding to awry comments from fans on social media sites. A fan posted a comment on Ravichandran Ashwin’s Twitter page criticising him on doing well only in Asian conditions and being a waste in foreign conditions and also about there being many other bowlers better than him.
Ashwin did not take too kindly to this and responded to the fan asking him to worry about his kids’ education rather than being concerned about him and also asking whether the off-spinner had taken his permission before taking up cricket.
Fan tweet: “you can show your performance only in Asia ... Foreign condition you are waste there are many bowlers perform more that u”
Ashwin’s response: “dey poi pulla Kutty AH paddikka vei da..unna kettuthaan villayada vanthenah??” Translation – “Go and focus on getting your kids educated instead of worrying about me, did I ask your permission before deciding to take up cricket?”
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