Stooping a new low, some people issued rape threats to Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma's nine-month-old daughter. Reason - the Indian cricket team captain supported Mohammed Shami and called out religious discrimination, unequivocally.
Mohammed Shami faced harsh online abuse after India lost to arch-rival Pakistan by 10 wickets at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on October 24.
A week after the match, Kohli came out in support of Shami. But that cost him more than he would have expected.? Some people could not digest the camaraderie, and resorted to online abuse. They targeted the couple and did not even spare Kohli's nine-month-old daughter, and issued rape threats.
Many took to Twitter to call out the online abuse:
Kohli launched a blistering attack on his team¡¯s critics, blasting them as ¡°spineless¡± and ¡°pathetic¡±, reserving particular vitriol for the trolls who blamed Shami for the loss last week.
¡°There¡¯s a good reason why we are playing on the field and not a bunch of spineless people on social media that have no courage to actually speak to any individual in person,¡± said Kohli.
¡°It has become a social pandemic in today¡¯s world, which is so unfortunate and so sad to see because this is literally the lowest level of human potential that one can operate at. And that¡¯s how I look at these people.¡±
¡°Attacking someone over their religion is the most pathetic thing that a human being can do. They have no understanding of how much effort we put into the field. They have no understanding of the fact that someone like Shami has won India matches in the last few years.
¡°Honestly I don¡¯t even want to waste one minute of my life to give any attention to those people and neither does Shami and neither does anyone else on the team," said the captain.
Last year, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's?five-year-old daughter Ziva was targeted online, after an Instagram user sent rape threats. The disturbing incident happened after Chennai Super Kings (CSK) lost against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Wednesday at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
We are not adding the tweets in the article due to their abusive nature.