The cricket match between India and Pakistan on Sunday in the ongoing Asia Cup turned into a nail-biting contest with Pakistan clinching the victory in the last thriller over. However, India's young pacer Arshdeep Singh faced the ire of online trolls after he dropped a catch in the second last over. Arshdeep, 23, kept Pakistan on its toes in the last over with a wicket and a dot ball, but nothing stopped the trolls from calling him names like "Khalistani" and accusing him of siding with the Pakistani side.
Even though 'Khalistani' started trending on Twitter on Sunday after Arshdeep's dropped catch, support started trending for the young pacer.
What happened?
The cricket match between India and Pakistan on Sunday entered a crucial stage in the last few overs when both the teams were trying to maintain a grip. India's Ravi Bishnoi was bowling the second last over to Pakistan's Asif Ali. He hit a slog sweep and the ball went high in the air, setting up Arshdeep for a catch. But he dropped the catch that became one of the game-changing moments.
Khalistani began to trend on Twitter as some users used the hashtag #Khalistan to criticise Arshdeep. His Wikipedia page too was edited as well calling him a Khalistani cricketer, even though the changes were reversed within 15 minutes
Screenshot of Arshdeep's edited Wikipedia page
Support pours In for Arshdeep
IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar criticised Wikipedia for Arshdeep's edited page and said that "no intermediary operating in India can permit this type of misinformation".
Veteran cricketers like Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh and Mohammad Hafeez were among many Twitter users who spoke out in support of Arshdeep and slammed the trolls for resorting to name-calling.
"Stop criticising young @arshdeepsinghh No one drop the catch purposely..we are proud of our boys .. Pakistan played better.. shame on such people who r putting our own guys down by saying cheap things on this platform bout arsh and team.. Arsh is GOLD," Harbhajan wrote on Twitter.
"In sports we make mistakes as we r human. Please don't humiliate anyone on these mistakes (sic)," Pakistan's Hafeez said on Twitter.
"Arshdeep is a strong character. Stay that way bo (sic)," former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan wrote.
The trolling
The trolling attack began late in the evening after 11pm, just minutes after the catch drop and it intensified after Pakistan's win in the final over thriller. 'Khalistani' was among Twitter's top trends on Monday morning. Derogatory remarks like calling him a 'Pakistani agent' were made against Arshdeep. Here are some of the tweets that were posted between 11pm to 11:10pm.
Trolling after match losses
Arshdeep is not the only cricketer to have faced the ire of trolls for misfielding or bowling unimpressive last overs. In October last year, when India lost a match to Pakistan in the ICC T20 World Cup, Indian bowler Muhammed Shami faced a vicious troll attack. He was bowling the last over, even though Pakistan by then looked set for a comfortable win. Being the only Musli in the playing 11, he faced derogatory remarks. Virat Kohli, the then captain of the team, former cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi rallied in Shami's support.
Pakistan's Hassan Ali too faced the trolls after Pakistan lost the semi-final defeat of the ICC T20 World Cup last year. Ali dropped Matthew Wade's catch, which did prove to be costly for the Pakistani side.
Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar's remarks on the issue.