India’s women have just clinched a famous Test win against Australia. The sport has new-found momentum after back-to-back Test wins against England and Australia. Just when there were celebrations all round, toxicity seems to have cast a shadow on the win. An ESPN Cricinfo report credited Mithali Raj with having started the transformation. Yes, the headline could have been tweaked but it was clear to everyone what it was trying to portray. Mithali is a pioneer of the sport and some of the players like Sneh Rana, who won the player of the match award against Australia, were brought back into the team at her behest. The headline did not try to deny any of the current team members credit. And yet, soon after the report was tweeted, we saw Anjum Chopra, former captain and one of the most respected voices in the sport, post a cryptic response asking “How” – in what way was Mithali responsible for this win? She then clarified in a further tweet that her question was specifically meant for the headline.
Did Chopra have to react to a media headline? What optics does it send out? Can we not stay away from such controversy? Below her tweet, there were a number of comments which were critical of Mithali. Some were even abusive. Shouldn’t former greats of the sport, role models for many, act with more restraint when they know that toxic fan behaviour is part of our social reality? Aren’t Viratians and Rohitians toxic enough, without that sort of virus infecting the women’s cricket domain as well?
Nothing passes as a simple, innocuous message anymore. Maybe Chopra just tweeted without meaning anything. Maybe it was done in jest. But it is natural that in this day and age, fans will jump to interpretations. While some will say it is Chopra questioning Mithali’s contribution, others will use her tweet to make it a Mithali-v-Harmanpreet Kaur story. None of this is warranted, for all we need to do is sustain the momentum going into 2024. And while trying to do so, the first thing that ought to be done is avoiding any kind of negativity.
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