This season, it’s Travis Head and Shreyas Iyer. Earlier, it was Hardik Pandya. The list is endless – of cricketers caught in the crossfire of fan wars. A few days back, Australian and Sunrisers Hyderabad cricketer Travis Head’s family was targeted after he was involved in a handshake snub with Virat Kohli. Before that, Shresta Iyer, Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer’s sister, was the target of trolls for putting out a video after a washed-out match against Kolkata Knight Riders.
Before that, Hardik Pandya had been bashed on social media after a captaincy change in Mumbai Indians. The list goes on endlessly. Opinions, sometimes which can be very strong, can be given, but the scary part is most of it nowadays is not organic.
A very insightful report by news agency PTI delved into the depths of the toxic fan war and exposed how much it costs to run a ‘negative’ campaign against players.
“There are agencies that can charge anything between Rs 25,000 to Rs 2 lakh for spreading unmitigated hatred against a particular player,” an industry insider told PTI.
“To run a campaign, customized stats could be given. Now it’s up to them to make the topic trend. Obviously, the rates will be different for hours of trending and trending for days,” the insider added.
The report went on to further reveal how the social media game around cricketers changed dramatically nearly a decade ago when platforms stopped being mere tools of engagement and became commercial gold mines. A player’s social media following increasingly determined the value of his digital endorsement deals at a time when traditional advertising revenue through linear television began shrinking.
“And here entered a very important component: the sports management firms that handled players’ image and commercials,” a senior BCCI official told PTI.
“The managers would comb through profiles of social media aggregators with decent followings. They would be engaged to improve a player’s social media traction,” the official explained.
Ashwin’s prophecy
Ravichandran Ashwin is perhaps the first high-profile cricketer who spoke out against the fan war.
“There’s something of a disease going around right now. Many of the opinions that surface on social media through fan armies – I’ve heard them before, first-hand. Sometimes, I’ve heard these exact views at a breakfast or lunch table, only to see them later appear online under a different name. That’s when you start to wonder: how is this happening?” Ashwin said at the Revsportz Conclave.
“I’m not saying players themselves are planting these opinions, but it is concerning. Is there some kind of orchestration? I can’t say for certain, but there does seem to be a structured ecosystem at play.
“Today, every player is an entrepreneur, and amplifying opinions externally can enhance brand value or improve PR. I understand that. But speaking negatively about another cricketer is something I would never do.”
Ashwin has always been known to call a spade a spade. This time too, he was right.
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