Recently, fans abused Shubman Gill on social media and even targeted his sister and threatened sexual violence against her. All in all it was a low thing to do, which no real sports lover should ever indulge in
Everyone feels performance pressure. It does not matter what we do, whether we are students, housewives, pen pushers, babus, corporate slaves or head honchos, performance pressure is always there. And it’s more intense if one is a celebrity, like an actor or sportsperson where the expectations of the fan base are immense.
This burden of expectation is a thousand times worse if one is a cricketer in a cricket crazy nation like ours, where people literally worship legendary players like Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Mohinder Amarnath, MS Dhoni, Rahul Dravid and Virat Kholi to name a few.
So, obviously, when cricketers, great or small, go out on the field to play they are stressed out like any normal human being facing immense performance pressure. That’s understood and to be expected. But what is not understood and expected is the added burden of worry for their own safety and that of their family that some “fans” have started placing on the shoulders of our sportsmen.
The latest example of this boorish and unacceptable behaviour is the trolling of and threats to cricketer Shubman Gill and his sister Shahneel by some so-called fans. The nasty episode was triggered when the Gujarat Titans opening batter scored his second successive hundred that handed his team another victory in the Indian Premier League 2023. However, GT’s victory resulted in Virat Kohli-captained Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB’s) exit from the tournament.
While the losing team accepted the loss gracefully and King Kohli even acknowledged Gill’s ton with an embrace post the match, the ouster of RCB from the tournament didn’t go down well with some fans, or maybe bookies. Fans began abusing Gill on social media and even targeted his sister and threatened sexual violence against her. All in all it was a distasteful and low thing to do, which no real sports lover should ever indulge in and which no sportsperson should ever be put through for just doing their job well or even badly on any given day.
Thankfully some fans came out strongly in defence of the duo who were facing a volley of abuse and called out the trollers and the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal, too, initiated action against the harassment of the cricketer and his sister.
