Since Hardik Pandya was announced as the Mumbai Indians captain, he has been constantly under pressure from his fans. The Indian all-rounder has constantly been showered with torrents of obscenities, dislikes and offensive language from supporters in every stadium during IPL 2024 season.
Have you ever heard a cricket commentator in a match saying to the crowd, ‘You just need to learn how to behave’? This was the level that Sanjay Manjrekar had to go when he suddenly rose up and went there at Wankhede Stadium recently after his own team’s captain was being booed during the toss.
That is what has been happening for long. Whereas Gujarat Titans fans were baffled by Hardik’s move to Mumbai Indians, even his own supporters turned against him when he replaced Rohit Sharma as MI skipper.
Social media rendered Hardik a laughing stock before IPL started and it continued in greater proportions afterwards. At Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, they jeered Hardik intensely. Although we can understand given he was a GT captain, especially Mumbai and Hyderabad have been weird over the past two matches.
This is not a First Time in Indian Cricket history
In their country, the fans and social media believe that Rohit Sharma playing under Hardik Pandya is either a sin or a monumental crime. Nevertheless, in Indian cricket history this has been happening many times. In other words, we have had captains change from the Golden Years till now and gone ahead with life. Ravichandran Ashwin also had same question.
“Aren’t you supposed to be-?”, “I think it’s the responsibility of the fans to…”, “Why are you pretending this hasn’t happened before?” This is the cinema culture complete with own cricket players. They are your own cricketers for heaven’s sake! Why do you boo at your own player,” questioned Ravichandran Ashwin recently.
Toxicity in Social Media
Social media is such a funny place. It can elevate one to the peak and crash him in the same minute. However, Hardik Panda’s ongoing issue is not requested at all. The toxic ness about Pandya has got into the blood of people so much so that even the reasonable mind has yielded to irrational feelings.
Hardik Pandya did not choose his captaincy at MI by himself. He might have harbored aspirations of leading the team, but it was Mumbai Indians team management that authorized his appointment. Rohit Sharma personifies Mumbai, and his sudden demotion as captain means there is something wrong with this statement, but it doesn’t allow anybody to bash Pandya and say ill words against him.
Notwithstanding, the ex-players and cricket pundits are by no means adequate to voice their concerns about Hardik Pandya. In his recent interview with India Today, Harsha Bhogle has asked people to stop falling into these social media traps and mentioned one possible reason why Hardik Pandya is receiving this kind of treatment.
“Rohit Sharma was trolled brutally but now Rohit Sharma’s fans are trolling Hardik Pandya brutally.” We should not underestimate the importance of a post-match handshake. And now, there are these groups on social media who keep after each other. And all this while others think that is what the game is,” said Bhogle.
True Cricket Fans to Stop This Controversy
However, with reference to this, it is the duty of those who are sensible. Nevertheless, the durability relies on a majority who go with the flow and join in trolling. But for his small-scale agenda that had been joined by a large group without any reason at all.
People have been trolling Hardik Pandya ‘Just For the Sake of It’; and if some of Mumbai Indians fans ‘Booed’ him in their last match then it can be concluded that they do not love Mumbai Indians as much as they like targets on one person.
Any Indian cricketer gets hellish reception after replacing some captain! Then it is up to you as an individual to save yourself from this ongoing frenzy of cheap emotion.
