South Africa’s left-arm spinner Tabraiz Shamsi has opened up about receiving online abuse after picking the wicket of Suryakumar Yadav. During the second T20I, the former got the wicket of Yadav (56) trying to take a chance. The right-hander led the team during the T20I series. During the second T20I, the home team, Proteas won by five wickets with DLS in play.
Meanwhile, as revealed by Shamsi, he received online hate due to his famous celebration of using his shoe as a telephone. The South African spinner mentioned that he faced a lot of abuse, and not even his family was spared.
“People took it in a negative way; they thought it was disrespectful,” Shamsi told Cricbuzz. “I had so much abuse hurled at me. It was probably the worst it’s ever been. There was also abuse hurled at my wife. I didn’t appreciate that. It’s uncalled for. It’s fine if you want to have a dig at the players, but to involve family and say nasty things, that pushes it to another level.
“I feel that if players don’t say anything about it, then people think they have free licence. More people need to speak up and say it’s not OK. Yes, we’re all trying our best. Yes, your team might not win or you might not agree with certain things. But you need to behave like a human being. You can’t carry on like an animal.”
People know that as sportsmen, we can’t say anything back: Tabraiz Shamsi
Shamsi added that the trolls always know that we can’t say anything back because they know sportsmen can’t give it back
“People know that because we are sportsmen we can’t really say anything back, and they take advantage of it. I’m never shy to express my opinion, so from time to time I let people have a piece of my mind – if they’re stepping over the line. But you can never win that battle.”
Meanwhile, Suryrakumar has been out of the game due to heel injury he sustained during the third T20I.
