Sri Lanka suffered a whitewash in Southampton on Saturday (26) to reach a new and unprecedented low[/caption]
“Unfollow all these failed cricketers,”
“The aim of the campaign is to un-follow failed Sri Lankan cricketers from their verified profiles on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter,” a popular website noted yesterday on the new social media campaign which began after Sri Lanka’s bitter series defeat against England on Saturday (26) in England.
Fans were also sharing memes asking each other not to watch the national team on television.
“Unfollow all these failed cricketers,” said Ahmed Inaamulhaq on Twitter. “Don’t let them have the social media attention if they can’t perform for the national team. They do not deserve massive fan bases.”
There was no immediate reaction from any of the senior players, but some observers posted that the latest performance in England was one of the team’s worst in three decades, reported The Khaleej Time reporting on this ‘novel phenomena’ in world cricket.
“I have been watching cricket matches since 1993 but I have never seen such a weak Sri Lankan cricket team,” sports reporter Manjula Basnayake said on Twitter. “They can’t hit the ball.”
“We knew it was going to be a tough series coming into it, but our batting wasn’t up to the mark,” said Sri Lanka Captain Kusal Perera in Saturday’s post-match interviews. “That was our main issue. We couldn’t get used to the pace and the bounce of the pitches and conditions,” he added.
Sri Lanka have played 10 T20I series since October 2018 and won only one. They have lost two each to England, New Zealand and the West Indies and one each to Australia, India, and South Africa.
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The dejection has inevitably turned to anger. The boiling point has been reached. Saturday (26) night saw reversal of all the accolades that the sport of cricket has brought to this little island, once called the paradise of lion-hearted cricketers.
The internet came to Sri Lanka in the late 1990s and social media picked up here in the early years of the new millennium. The age-old fan base in cricket multiplied in numbers, sweeping the far off villages of the country, and this social media boom gave a new impetus to the sport and its local heroes.
Now, after all those fantastic years, the tide has been changed, the tables have turned, and the heroes have become villains.
They used to play in more trying situations
If you ever followed them on social media, un-follow them: That’s the message that hit the headlines after the debacle of debacles in Sri Lanka’s cricket history, which we startlingly watched on TV Saturday night. What we saw then in Southampton was NOT the Sri Lanka National Cricket Team!
It was a bunch of buffoons who are a disgrace to their country. They should either leave cricket or they should come out saying what their real problem is.
If not, what they are doing right now can only be classified as a tyranny and betrayal. Even a talented young one in this country will never ever think of even touching a cricket bat in future if you all continue this kind of spineless, ignominious display in future.
There had been worse cricket administrators in the past yet the players played better cricket. There had been bitterer political setups yet the players continued to play with more passion and grit. Selection blunders had always been there. Yet the Sri Lanka citizens could rally round the cricketers wholeheartedly.
A new chapter?
Soon after Saturday’s Southampton nightmare, quite aptly and inevitably, Sri Lanka cricket fans launched a campaign to shun their team on social media.
That is not because they suffered a clean (3-0) sweep against England in the T20I series, the fifth in a row, but for their lack of character which is latest strange feature in the Sri Lankan national team.
As the hash-tag #unfollowcricketers began to trend on Facebook yesterday Sunday, thousands of fans boycotted the Facebook pages of Vice Captain Kusal Mendis and opener Dhanushka Gunathilaka, local digital media reported.
The Facebook/Instagram boys of our time have apparently tasted their own medicine. There were more than enough accusations from many quarters that our cricketers had spent more time on the Facebook than on horning their cricket skills.
They waged social media wars among their own team-mates, with the ugly spats going to the extent of involving their wives and better halves. They were caught on nigh club escapades and were some occasions arrested with illegal narcotics. They were accused of rape and knocking down people by drunk-driving.
At least belatedly, not the old folks, but their own contemporaries in this high-tech age have came to understand the reality. Enough is enough! Let’s hope at least this fans’ anger may turn over a new leaf in Sri Lanka’s cricket!