Cricket is a game that unites and connects millions of people around the globe and ignites the passion to support their respective teams. Sometimes the passion of fans can turn into a threat to players, and boundaries can be crossed. In this article, we will take a look at top ten instances of fans abusing cricketers.
Instances of fans abusing cricketers
‘Go back Gavaskar’
In January 1985, India was hosting England in a Test series. When Kapil Dev was dropped after the Delhi Test loss, the team was welcomed with ‘Go back Gavaskar’ banners by the Eden Gardens crowd. This was the first and only time when Kapil Dev was dropped in his entire career and the crowds didn’t let their displeasure unknown.
After the match, Gavaskar said that the crowd also hurled abuses at his wife and said that he would never play in Kolkata again. As a result, when next year Pakistan toured India, Gavaskar withdrew from the Eden Gardens Test with Arun Lal replacing him.
Burning Effigies of Indian players
Indian fans flew into emotions and lost their control on the early exit of team India from the ICC World Cup 2007. At the end, fans started to burn the effigies of all the Indian players. However, the Indian cricket team somehow made its fans happy after winning the first-ever T20 World Cup played in the same year.
Throwing bottles in ground
Another instance of Indian fans losing their mind. After seeing India get beaten by Sri Lanka during the semifinals of the 1996 World Cup at the iconic Eden Gardens stadium. Crowd in the stands started to throw bottles in the ground. The situation got so much out of the hands that the match referee had to stop the match as Sri Lanka was adjudged winners of the match.
Booing Steve Smith
During a league stage match between India and Australia in the 2019 World Cup, Indian fans started to boo and call Australian batter Steve Smith a cheater. Seeing the behaviour of the fans, Virat Kohli asked the crowd to support Smith instead of booing and disrespecting him.
Attack on Australian bus
In 2017, India lost a match to the mighty Australians as the Indian fans attacked the Australian bus with stones in Guwahati. A picture of the same was also shared by former Australian opener Aaron Finch.
Attack on Jadeja and Du Plessis
In 2018, CSK was making his comeback in the IPL after a two-year ban. In a match between Chennai Super Kings and KKR, some unknown spectators attacked CSK’s allrounder Ravindra Jadeja and batter Faf Du Plessis with their footwear as the duo was fielding in the outfield.
Rape threat to Kohli’s daughter
During the T20 World Cup 2021, India lost to Pakistan for the first time WC history. After the match, an Indian fan threatened Virat Kohli to rape his daughter. This was one of the biggest occasions when fans just crossed their limits on social media.
Pandya’s MI captaincy saga
Hardik Pandya is facing the wrath of the fans after taking over the leadership role of Mumbai Indians from Rohit Sharma. The hatred for Hardik is growing for no fault of his. In a recent video, some of the fans were shown throwing their footwears when Pandya was shown on the screen for the toss.
‘Traitor’ Bumrah
Team India pacer spearhead Jasprit Bumrah faced flak online after BCCI made a stunning U-turn to withdraw him from the ODI series against Sri Lanka last year. The news of his pullout led to a barrage of criticism coming to his side from the netizens as several of them took to social media to slam him. Some of them also called Bumrah a ‘traitor’ who doesn’t understand the value of the national cap.
Arshdeep termed as ‘Khalistani’
Indian pacer Arshdeep Singh was called as ‘Khalistani’ after dropping a catch against Pakistan in an Asia Cup match back in 2022. A complaint was also launched against the miscreants for inciting hatred through the social media,
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