Hyderabad: Indian Premier League twenty20 and controversies are two sides of a coin. With 12 controversies in the previous 12 editions, IPL, possibly, the most controversial sporting event in the world. From slap-gate to IPL spot-fixing scandal to Ravichandran Ashwin's 'Mankad' row, from banning Pakistani cricketers to Shah Rukh Khan's Wankhede ban, the world's richest franchise based twenty20 league has seen it all in the last 12 years. There was not a single edition in which controversy didn't dominate the popularity quotient of the battle of bat and ball.
This season, 13th in sequence, is just a week old by now, and there was already an attempt to stir up a slowly drifting, rather melancholic IPL.
Just a two-line statement and video footage was well enough for mainstream media and social media pundits to raise questions on legendary batsman turned commentator Sunil Gavaskar's outlook towards women. He was held accountable for a cheeky remark on Anushka Sharma, a top-notch Bollywood actress and wife of Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli. People, rather say fans of the couple, accused Sunil Gavaskar of misogyny for his on-air comment involving Anushka while talking about Virat Kohli's patchy form in IPL 2020.
"Ab jab lockdown tha toh sirf Anushka ki bowling ki practice ki unhone, wo video dekhiye. Us se toh kuch nahi ban na hai,” the commentator Sunil Gavaskar remarked as Virat Kohli faced the ball in the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Thursday. “During the lockdown, he did bowling practice only with Anushka, you watch the video. That won’t be enough," reads the translation.
In the match against Kings XI Punjab, Kohli walked in at a testing time. RCB were 2 down for 3 runs in 1.3 overs while chasing a 207-run target. Kohli could score only 1 run coming at No.4 off 5 balls. He was visibly not at his best form. Coming back to play after March, circa seven months, when India toured New Zealand before the highly contagious Coronavirus brought the entire world to a standstill, Kohli seemed to have lost his feather touch. It was imminent since he didn't have the privilege for the on-field practice. While commenting on his poor batting, Gavaskar made a comment that involved the cricketer's wife name. It was a tongue in cheek remark which was definitely uncalled for from someone like Gavaskar, who was happened to be the first hero of Indian cricket.
The former India skipper was referring to an old leaked video that had surfaced on social media in May amid the COVID-19 forced lockdown. In that video, Kohli and his wife, actress Anushka Sharma, were captured from a nearby apartment playing cricket on the terrace of their home. Gavaskar's commentary preceded by a remark on Kohli, who dropped two catches at deep that paved the way for KL Rahul to score a sparkling 69-ball 132 against RCB. “He knows he can become better only with more practice," Gavaskar opined.
Unfortunately, minutes after Gavaskar's comment, his words were twisted, caricatured, and he was slammed by celebrities, journalists and internet influencers who seemed to have not heard or watched the original footage of the commentary. They have instead taken the hearsay very seriously.
Twisted words and deleted tweets
Moved by the development, actress Anushka Sharma took to the twitter and slammed Sunil Gavaskar writing a worded Instagram post, which she later deleted without rendering any explanation. “Mr. Gavaskar your message is distasteful is a fact but I would love for you to explain why you thought of making such a sweeping statement on a wife accusing her for her husband’s game? I am sure over the years you have respected the private lives of every cricketer while commentating on the game”: a part of her Instagram story read.
From top-notch media outlets to celebrities, almost everyone joined the bandwagon of social media experts in alleging that Gavaskar had blamed Anushka for Kohli’s uncharacteristic batting against KXIP. Making the matter worse, an effort was made to prove that Gavaskar was mischievous while referring to Kohli playing with Anushka's balls. Here the chorus against Gavaskar got stronger. Many, who hardly watch cricket and might have not heard what Gavaskar had to say about Kohli's batting, came into the picture with tweets slamming the former India batter.
Instead of his actual quote, a total misquote of Gavaskar’s comments surfaced on social and mainstream media. “Inhone lockdown me to bas Anushka ki gendon ki practice ki hai (He has only practiced with Anushka's balls in the Lockdown'': was what Twitter made out of it.
Highlighting that twisted words of Gavaskar Twitteratis and the mainstream media, which lacking topics amid COVID-19 pandemic, made #BoycottGavaskar trend on Twitter. Moral policing started and people went on to urging BCCI to ban him from the commentary job.
The fact is that neither Anushka Sharma nor the media community gave thorough attention to the fact-checking before questioning Gavaskar for his remark.
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Here is the video we all have been talking about. #Gavaskar #AnushkaSharma #ViratKohli @imVkohli @AnushkaSharma #ipl #rcb #SunilGavaskar pic.twitter.com/aCRtB6Pr2x
— Vishal Ghandat (@vishalghandat1) September 25, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
">Here is the video we all have been talking about. #Gavaskar #AnushkaSharma #ViratKohli @imVkohli @AnushkaSharma #ipl #rcb #SunilGavaskar pic.twitter.com/aCRtB6Pr2x
— Vishal Ghandat (@vishalghandat1) September 25, 2020Here is the video we all have been talking about. #Gavaskar #AnushkaSharma #ViratKohli @imVkohli @AnushkaSharma #ipl #rcb #SunilGavaskar pic.twitter.com/aCRtB6Pr2x
— Vishal Ghandat (@vishalghandat1) September 25, 2020
By afternoon when the original video of Gavaskar's commentary surfaced on the internet, mainstream media, celebrities and the kangaroo court of social media either updated their stories or deleted their tweets.
Disgusted by the development, Gavaskar cleared his statement and made everyone gulp their allegations against him. “Firstly, I would like to say, where am I blaming her? I’m not blaming her. I am only saying that the video showed she was bowling to Virat. Virat has only played that much bowling in this lockdown period," he said.
As Gavaskar toned up his voice, all caved in and muted their raising voices against the batting legend.
-- By Sudipta Biswas
