
The new age of social media means access to information like never before. Especially when it comes to celebrities and those in the public eye. Everyone is free to express their opinions with few consequences, even if those are abusive and vile. While social media has minimised the distance between a celebrity and a fan, it has also blurred the boundaries between opinion and abuse. The cricket world has recently seen a barrage of abuse aimed at Harshit Rana and Pratika Rawal. The two Indian cricketers have been at the receiving end of extreme online hate and trolling.
Harshit’s crime was being selected in the Indian team for all three formats while Pratika stands accused of benefiting from nepotism after not performing up to sky-high expectations. The two cases perfectly illustrate how easy it is to discredit an athlete in the modern world. In Indian cricket, every victory is seen as the bare minimum, and every mistake is magnified. While glory is public, so is failure.
Harshit became an overnight sensation in the Indian cricketing fraternity when he made his T20I debut, called in as a concussion substitute for Shivam Dube. In that match, he went on to pick up two important wickets that changed the course of the game. Since then, he has been a regular in the Indian side and is now part of all three squads for India. While the right to critically assess a player remains with the fans, the right to abuse does not. Rana has been trolled left and right, so much so that even a few former players have joined the bandwagon. India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir, in a press conference, spoke about the abuse that the 23 year old has been subjected to.
“He’s just a 23-year-old kid who has made it to the Indian team on the back of his ability,” said Gambhir. “His father is not the ex-chairperson of selectors or an NRI. He has been picked based on his potential. It’s shameful that people are abusing a kid for likes and views on their YouTube channels. You can target a player’s performance if you want. If you want to attack someone, attack me. This is not just about Harshit, but anyone.”
Another case study has been India Women’s batter Pratika, who, after some below-par performances in the Women’s World Cup, has been accused of nepotism because her father is an umpire.
At the end of the day, what these incidents reveal about fan culture is not just the fragility of public perception, but also the growing toxicity of the online sports ecosystem – where players are pitted against each other, trolled, abused and hated. The line between accountability and cruelty has never been thinner. While it is accepted that criticism is a part of sport and that it drives players to grow, abuse corrodes both the spirit of the athlete and integrity of the game.
The dressing room does not own Indian cricket, we all do. We have a moral responsibility to express passion with consideration. It’s time to remember that athletes are not algorithms or software designed for perfect output every single time. They too are human beings who fail, learn and rise. Much like the fans who cheer for them.
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