On Monday morning, the distasteful news spread like wildfire that Jessica, wife of Australia and Sunrisers Hyderabad batsman Travis Head, had been abused online by Indian trolls following the handshake controversy. If it didn’t make you hang your head in shame, nothing will.
This behaviour is not exclusive to Indian trolls. It’s a global thing. Human nature is the same everywhere, but that doesn’t mean it has to be normalised. Somebody will have to stick their neck out and call out the trolls.
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There is a mindset in India that believes that because the IPL pays these foreign cricketers a lot of money, they have some kind of right to denigrate or even abuse them. Well, they are being paid for the extraordinary services they provide. Just last night, in a great reminder, Jofra Archer singlehandedly orchestrated Rajasthan Royals’ entry into the play-offs.
They are here to enhance the league, not to take insults. Earlier this season, SRH’s Heinrich Klaasen and his family were harassed by a fan, and only when the South African threatened to take him down did things settle.
It would have been understandable — forcibly though — if Head had denied Kohli the post-match handshake. Kohli did it. During the SRH-RCB game, Kohli appeared more at fault. He took a dig at Head during RCB’s chase. Asked him to bowl a few deliveries since the Aussie wasn’t substituted like many times before this season. All Head said in retort was, when Kohli got out for an 11-ball 15, “Mate, you have got out before I could come on to bowl.”
Head had moved on from that episode as the match got over, since he was looking to shake hands with Kohli. It was the Indian legend who walked right past him onto the next player in the queue.
Anyway, it was a matter between men, why was Jessica, mother of two beautiful children, brought into it? Where was her fault? Indeed, it was a matter of great shame.
And these trolls are no one’s friends. A lot of us will remember how Kohli and his family were trolled online a few years ago when India lost to Pakistan in the 2021 T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates. Many of Jessica’s trolls must have trolled those who threatened Kohli’s family back then. And there is a very strong possibility that many of them are involved in the latest case of trolling the Head family.
Indian cricketers should take the lead in educating them!
Granted, a lot of Australians are quite racist. During the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2020-21, India fast bowler Mohammed Siraj was a victim of racism during the Sydney Test. The Aussie spectators called him terrible names. Such things are quite normal for Indians living overseas, if truth be told.
But two wrongs don’t make a right. Indian cricketers should take the lead in this matter. It’s part of their social responsibilities, too. They should lecture the trolls – often their fans — more frequently (yes, some of them have done so in the past) on how to behave decently, at least not to go after players’ families.
Indian cricketers have a massive fan following on social media. And they upload all kinds of stuff up there. The new cars they are driving, their dance moves, their singing — the whole shebang. It will be great if they also include social messages on their platforms. Through that, they can change a few trolls, if not all. That will be a beginning.
